Leave the Hurt Behind
by Rose Jennison
Summary: TFP. A story of breaking out and moving on. When MECH interferes with the arrival of a new ally the Autobots go on a rescue mission, and they end up with one more guest than they were expecting.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

This story should start right after the episode "Partners". Also, for anyone who recognizes where the title comes from, this story has nothing to do with "Love Never Dies". I just like that phrase. :P

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><p>"Come on, Come on!" Jack pleaded with the racing game.<p>

"Ha! No way am I letting you pass me!" Miko taunted, her vehicle slammed into Jack's and made him cry out indignantly. When the music started up to announce the winner Miko sprang up and started to do a little victory dance.

"Uh, Miko, you might want to take a rain check on that." Jack pointed to the screen with a smirk. Miko stopped dancing and took a look. It was Raf's name that was being flashed across the screen.

"What? How did that happen?" Miko eyed the small boy sitting on the other end of the couch.

"You were too focused on each other to notice me go by." Raf said with a shrug. Then he smiled. "I'm really starting to enjoy having a third controller."

"Will you people quiet down! I'm trying to concentrate." Ratchet berated them as he worked at the giant computer. "Optimus, I think you should come see this." He said over the com link. Just as he was saying this Arcee and Bulkhead walked in.

"What's all the shouting about doc bot?" The green bot asked as everyone started to gather around the screen Ratchet was looking at. Optimus and Bumblebee soon joined them.

"I'm getting an Autobot signal." Ratchet announced. That got everyone's attention, even Miko's. "It appears to be a communication from a single bot, similar to kind that Wheeljack used to contact us."

"Jackie's back in town?" Bulkhead asked excitedly.

"I said similar, not the same." The medic corrected. Optimus looked at the screen thoughtfully.

"Let's find out who it is. Ratchet, patch the signal through." The medic nodded, and after pushing a few buttons a garbled voice was heard over the speaker.

"He-an-any-hear-" Ratchet frowned, and pushed a few more buttons.

"There seems to be some interference, I'll see if I can get it cleared up." Half a minute later a clear feminine voice was heard.

"Hello, this is the Autobot Stellar Flare trying to reach the Autobot base on Earth. Can anyone hear me?" Arcee perked up at the sound of the voice.

"Do you know her Arcee?" Jack questioned.

"Yeah, I do. Flare and I were comrades back in the early days of the war. Sometimes she would get assigned to the same missions that Tailgate and I were on. You met her once didn't you Bee?" The yellow bot beeped in recognition.

"Your are certain it is the same femme?" Optimus asked her.

"Certainly sounds like Flare to me." Optimus nodded and stepped up to the screen.

"Stellar Flare, this is Optimus Prime, your signal has been received. We will send you safe landing coordinates."

"Thank you sir, but I don't think it will do much good. My navigational systems were damaged in the last battle I was in. I haven't had a chance to get them get them repaired."

"From what I recall your navigational system didn't work very well to begin with." Arcee said with a playful smirk.

"Arcee? Is that you? I didn't know I'd find you here!"

"That makes two of us." Arcee quipped.

"And as I recall Arcee, you got lost on your way back to base just as many times as I did!" Flare shot back defensively. Ratchet spoke up before they could continue.

"We can get to the happy reunions later. Now we need to make sure that she isn't going to land in a populated area. I'm going to get a fix on her trajectory. In the mean time Flare, you should cut off the communication so your signal doesn't get caught by the Decepticons."

"Yes sir, see you all soon." With that Flare shut off the link.

"This is so awesome!" Miko cried as she jumped with excitement "We're getting a new bot! I hope she stays around longer than Wheeljack did."

"If she's coming here on her own she probably means to stay for a while. Flare likes to be a part of a team." The two wheeler confirmed. '_I wonder how she got separated from the rest of the Valkyries_.'

Flare wouldn't be landing for a little while, so the bots either went back to work or made preparations for a new team member. Having her there would mean that their energon reserves would get spent a little faster, but everyone was happy with the idea of having another bot to help out the cause. Optimus went to prepare for a conversation with Agent Fowler, if he didn't inform him soon then Fowler would just give him more grief about it when he did find out. The kids went back to their video game, but Arcee stayed with Ratchet. She watched him nail down the coordinates she was most likely to end up at, and prepare the ground bridge. She also noticed that he seemed very preoccupied.

"Is something wrong Ratchet?" she asked when the medic started muttering to himself.

"It's the interference that was making Flare's signal so hard to get through at first. For the life of me I can't figure out where it was coming from or what caused it." He shook his head and started muttering again as he bent closer to the computer panel. Arcee felt a sense of foreboding start to grow inside her.

"_Calm down Arcee, you're just being paranoid. She said she'd been in a fight, maybe she just forgot to mention that her communications were damaged too."_ She tried to reassure herself. It wasn't working very well. Ratchet voice brought her back to reality.

"The ground bridge is ready, and Flare should have landed by now. Thankfully the only thing she could disturb in those coordinates are a few trees. Everyone report to the ground bridge." The last part he said over the intercom. As the other bots strolled in, Jack noticed the look of worry on his gaurdian's face.

"Arcee, are you okay? You, don't seem as happy as you did before." Jack looked at her with concern.

"It's nothing Jack." She tried for a reassuring smile as Ratchet activated the ground bridge. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Optimus began to walk towards the swirling green gateway.

"Ratchet be prepared to treat any injuries Flare might have when we return. Autobots, roll out!" They all transformed to their vehicle modes and zoomed through the portal.

As they went through, Arcee allowed her hopes to rise a little. It was just a bit of interference, it wouldn't do Flare any harm. Plus she couldn't deny that another femme bot at the base would be nice. She loved all of her comrades dearly, but it was a bit of a boy's club. She could talk to Flare about the early days too, the days before so many things went wrong. By the time they were exiting the ground bridge, Arcee was actually feeling rather excited. But as soon as they set foot out of the bridge her hope and excitement were dashed.

They had stepped out into a grassy clearing in a moderately forested area. A small one bot ship was lying on the ground, more like an escape pod than a full fledged ship. The long, deep groove behind the ship suggested the landing had been rather hard, though the passenger part of the ship remained mostly undamaged. But the rest of the scene was far from orderly. The ground had been torn up, and not from the crash landing. Chunks of sod were strewn all over the clearing, and several trees had scorch marks on them.

"Well, something definitely went down here." Bulkhead stated the obvious. Arcee knelt down to get a closer look at the ground. She could make out tire tracks in the dirt.

"Hey," Bulkhead said when he noticed the same thing. "those look like the same kind of tracks I followed when I had to bust out Breakdown." Arcee's eyes widened in realization.

"So, that means..." she faded off, not wanting to think about the possibility.

"It means, that Flare may have been captured by MECH." Optimus finished gravely.

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><p>Silas looked down at the unconscious red-orange metal figure that lay fastened to the floor. No matter how many times he came into contact with these beings he was always struck by their marvelous design. This one was somewhat smaller than some of the others. His first session with the bigger one had certainly paid off. The scientists got some valuable information on the communications systems, and it was quite lucky that they had stumbled upon this one's signal as they were experimenting with the technology. He turned his attention back to the young officer that was reporting to him.<p>

"There was a little bit of a struggle, but not much of one. We hit it with the stun gun as soon as we could and did our best not to damage it too much, just like you asked."

"Did it enter the atmosphere in this state?" Silas questioned him.

"No sir, it came in a vessel just big enough for it to fit in."

"And you didn't think to take the ship as well?" He gave the soldier a hard look. The young man gulped nervously.

"I-I'm sorry sir. We were going to try and bring the vessel back, but subduing the cargo took longer than expected. Plus we had to lay all those false trails, and you said to come back quickly sir." He hurriedly explained, sensing Silas's disappointment. All the MECH soldiers knew how dangerous it could be to disappoint their leader.

"Well, perhaps you could make up for that slip by getting the work started on this one as quickly as possible." Silas's voice remained calm, but had a threatening edge to it.

"Right away sir!" The man called as he dashed away to do as he was told, stumbling over himself on the way out.

Silas turned his attention back to the Autobot once he had gone. His lips curled into a small smug smile.

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><p>And that's the first chapter! Thanks for reading. Any reviews or constructive criticism that you thought of while reading would be greatly appreciated.<p>

I feel a little bad for getting an OC captured right away, usually I think of that as poor sport. However, I have a reason for wanting her there, and I promise to do my best to give her the character development she deserves! :)

Thanks again!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p>"What the pit are we waiting for?" Arcee demanded looking angrily down at Ratchet. The older bot was kneeling close to the ground with a scanner. As soon as the Autobots realized what had happened to Flare they had called in the medic to help in the search. Ratchet had quickly used the ground bridge to bring Ms. Darby to the base. He didn't want to be distracted by thinking about what kind of mischief the kids might get into being in the base unsupervised. He'd also had to deal with Miko. When she'd heard that the bots were going to be chasing down MECH she wouldn't stop begging to come with. Thankfully Jack and Raf were able to distract her just long enough for Ratchet to get through and have for the ground bridge to close behind him.<p>

"We are waiting to see which direction we should be going." Ratchet replied grumpily. He got up from his crouch, sounding exasperated as he explained his findings. "MECH certainly learns quickly, this capture has had a lot of thought put into it compared to Breakdown's. There are numerous trails leading away from the sight, and my instruments can't detect even a slight energy signal. I can't tell which of these trails leads in the right direction. Maybe I could-"

"This is ridiculous!" Arcee snapped. She turned toward a trail leading south. "I'm going to find Flare. Feel free to join me when you're done chatting." She called over her shoulder.

"Arcee, hold your position." Optimus quickly commanded. The blue femme automatically halted. Optimus sighed. "Arcee, look at me." She slowly turned towards him, servos clenched into fists. "I've warned you before that you shouldn't attempt to engage an enemy on your own."

"Well I wouldn't be on my own if everyone would stop standing around and do something!" Optimus vented another sigh.

"Arcee, I understand how you feel, and we are going to do everything in our power to save Flare. However, we won't be able to stage a successful rescue if we rush into this without thinking it through." He paused, looking the two wheeler in the optics. "You are not acting rationally Arcee. If you continue this way, I will have to insist that you return to base and operate the ground bridge." Arcee's optics grew wide.

"What! No, I-" she stopped herself when she realized what she was about to say. Was she seriously about to shout and start fighting with Optimus? She bowed her head.

"I understand sir. I'll keep my emotions in check from now on." Optimus nodded and lay a comforting hand on her shoulder before turning away to consult with Ratchet. Arcee walked dejectedly toward Bulkhead and Bumblebee, but stopped several feet away. After a few moments of pantomimed argument, the green mech approached her.

"Arcee, you-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. My stupid sense of vengeance is getting in the way of things again. Just like it did with Starscream." Her optics stayed on the ground as she spoke.

"Actually, I was just going to ask you about Flare." Arcee brought her head up, looking surprised. The big bot fidgeted a little. "Well, you've known her for a long time, and Bumblebee says he met her once. I never have though. I'm kinda curious, I mean, she is gonna be part of the team soon."

"So, you want to know what Flare is like?" The small femme questioned. Bulkhead nodded. Bumblebee beeped, saying that he would like to know a bit more too. Arcee nodded slowly.

"Alright." The two taller bots leaned in to listen. A few seconds passed before Arcee started talking.

"Flare is one of the most caring bots I've ever met. We served together way back, I first met Tailgate at about the same time that I met Flare. From what I remember she was very empathetic, seemed to have a gift for what other bots were feeling. She always seemed to know the right thing to say, especially when you were feeling down. After I lost Tailgate she stayed with me and listened to me vent. I even asked her to leave me alone, but somehow she knew that's not what I really wanted." She paused for minute, closing her optics. Bumblebee started to beep in concern, but Arcee held up a hand and he stopped.

"I'm fine, just got lost in the moment there. Hang on a sec." She held her servo out palm up, and looked like she was thinking hard. After a moment a hologram appeared above her palm. It was an image of two bots, the larger one had an arm resting on the other bot's shoulders.

"That's Tailgate right?" Bulkhead asked pointing to the larger of the two bots. Arcee nodded. "So then this is Flare." The green bot reasoned, looking at the smaller of the two. The femme looked about the same height as Arcee, but she was built thicker. Her plating was a fiery red-orange color with purple highlights. Instead of ending in sharp points, like much of Arcee's plating, the edges of her plating was smooth and curved. One of the plates on her head looked like it was a retractable visor. Like every Autobot, she had bright blue optics.

"Whoa" That was all Bulkhead could think to say. Flare was a rather good looking femme. Arcee smiled and laughed lightly, sensing what Bulkhead was thinking.

"Yeah, Flare had a couple mechs on base that always tried to chat her up." Her smile widened "That didn't stop any bot from playing pranks on her though. She sort of became the fall back victim for practical jokes. She fell for them every time, and she hardly ever got mad about them." She gazed at the image of Flare and Tailgate.

"She wouldn't let her emotions get in the way at a time like this, she would find a way to use them." She spoke so softly that Bulkhead and Bumblebee hardly heard her. She closed her hand, making the hologram disappear, before striding over to Ratchet and Optimus.

"Sir, I have a suggestion." Arcee said, getting Optimus's attention. He nodded for her to explain. "I think we should start a basic search pattern. If we stay together and do sweeps of the general area then Ratchets scanners might be able to pick up Flare's location when we start going in the right direction." Ratchet nodded.  
>"She has a good point Optimus, the scanner is always more powerful at close range." Optimus thought for a moment.<p>

"Do you have a spare scanner, old friend?" The red and white mech took out a different scanning device from a compartment attached to his back and handed it to Optimus. He took it and called all of the Autobots together.

"We're going to split into two different teams and do ground sweeps. Ratchet will be with me, the rest of you will form the other team. Arcee, you will be the leader of you team. Bumblebee will be responsible for scanning." He handed the scout the extra scanner.

"Understood?" Everyone nodded. Optimus gave a small encouraging smile to everyone before calling. "Autobots, Roll out!"

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><p>As she slowly regained consciousness, the first thing that Flare noticed was that something was wrong. She was pretty sure it had something to do with her body. It wasn't that she was in pain, but something was definitely off. She didn't open her optics just yet, instead choosing to put her energy toward remembering what had just happened.<p>

She remembered her escape pod approaching Earth, contacting Optimus Prime, learning Arcee was there, and being excited about seeing her old comrade. _'But what happened after that?'_ The escape pod landed on the planets surface. She had been a bit disoriented when she stumbled out, the pod didn't have very good inertia dampeners so landing had been far from soft. She had noticed tire tracks were already imprinted in the soil, had there been other bots there previously? She didn't have time to wonder beyond that though, because she was distracted by a click and a whooshing sound coming from her left. Instinct allowed her to dodge this first projectile, but soon they were coming from all around her. As she spun around she transformed her arms into guns and shot a couple blasts toward the sound, but that didn't stop them. She tried to dodge all of the small rockets, but a few of them still made contact. The impact threw her off balance and she fell over sideways. She heard a whirring sound, and looked up just in time for a bright blue light to fill her vision. Pain lanced throughout her system and everything went dark.

Now she was here, lying on the cold ground. _'Let's see if I can find out where 'here' is.'_ Flare opened her optics and let her gaze flicker around. She saw walls made of metal, with no windows. That could mean she was underground. She noted the height of the ceiling. _'I could probably stand up in here.'_ She thought to herself. She tried to move, but realized that something was keeping her clamped onto the cold steel floor.

She jerked a bit, trying to break whatever was binding her. She lifted her head to get a better look at what it was, and her optics widened in horror. Were her arms, legs and waist being held down by giant metal clasps? Yes. Was that the horrible part? No. What was horrifying, was that the plating on her arms and legs had been cut, sawed, and torn at. One section of her left arm had been cut open so far that the inner wiring was exposed. Energon was flowing from the wound and pooling on the floor. _'How in the pit did this happen?'_ She thought frantically. Also, why wasn't she screaming in pain? These wounds should have been making her pain sensors go berserk!

"Ah, you're awake. Very convenient timing." A pleasant voice commented. Flare looked towards the sound. By her pedes there was a little balcony with several computer monitors near the back. At the front a small bi-pedal creature leaned against the balcony's metal railing. _'He must be a human.'_ Flare realized. She hadn't known all that much about planet Earth before deciding to come here. Since she was separated from the rest of her team coming here had seemed like the best option. Most of what she knew about Earth was word of mouth. The only thing she knew for sure was that the dominant sentient beings were called humans, and that Optimus Prime had strictly forbidden any Autobot to harm them.

"Who are you?" Flare asked the human. The man smiled, but it wasn't at all comforting.

"I am known as Silas, and I am the leader of MECH." He moved away from the railing and walked down the stairs to be on the same level as Flare. "As I was saying it's very convenient that you wake up now. We had to pause the procedure to make a couple minor calibrations to the instruments. It makes it much easier to have a conversation when you don't have to talk over them." Flare's optics narrowed.

"Procedure? Instruments?... _You're_ the one who did this to me?" she demanded, her voice going from confusion to shocked anger.

"I think it's a bit unfair to say this was all my doing. MECH is an entire organization, not just one individual." Silas came a bit closer to her face, so she could see him more easily.

"I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. The information we get from studying you will prove most valuable to Project Chimera." He paused for a moment, looking contemplative. "It really is a pity that you won't survive after the procedure is completed. It would be fascinating to have a more in depth conversation with you. However, you won't survive, and we simply don't have the time for one now."

With each word that Silas spoke the feeling of dread inside of Flare's chest grew. She heard a crackle of static come from a small device attached to Silas's hip. He picked it up and brought it closer to his ear.

"Sir, the calibrations have been completed." Silas nodded, his smile retuning.

"Excellent. Resume your work as soon as possible." He reattached the radio to his belt and started to walk away.

As Silas reached the stairs several other humans walked in through the door and sat down at the computer monitors. There was a clicking noise above her, and Flare looked up to see several panels in the ceiling open up. From these new openings circular saws and other tools on automated arms descended towards her. She tried to shrink away from them, but the bindings wouldn't let her. She still didn't feel pain when they cut into her, and realized that Silas must have found a way to turn her pain sensors off. She looked at the people who had just entered, and at Silas, who was now standing by the door. _'These are the people that Optimus wants us to protect?'_ She thought in disbelief. It was well known that Optimus was very protective, especially toward races that got caught up in their war. But she just couldn't understand how Optimus would want to protect beings that acted like this. She would have to ask Optimus about it when she saw him...if she saw him. _'No, stay positive. You will get to talk to Optimus and you will get to see Arcee again.'_ she chided herself.

It was too disconcerting to watch her own body being sliced apart, so she focused her attention on the humans in the room. Maybe if she watched them closely enough she could figure out how to get out of this. As she watched, she heard the door open and close and saw Silas turn to the new arrival. She couldn't see the person because Silas's back was in the way. They seemed to talk for a few moments before Silas left the room. Now that she could see who he had been talking to, she couldn't help but be a little surprised.

For one thing, this person was smaller than any of the humans she had seen so far. She was barely taller than the people at the monitors, and they were all sitting down. _'Does the difference in size mean that she is a sparkling?'_ Flare wondered. Another thing was that she could see this person's face. All the humans in the room, except Silas, wore protective goggles and face concealing masks. This person didn't have anything obstructing her face, though her clothing was the same as the others. Her eyes were dark blue and her skin had a similar tone to Silas's. She also had long reddish blonde hair which she kept in a braid that went down about a fourth of her back.

The small one stopped by the monitors. She spoke briefly to the people there, and used a small data pad to record some information about Flare's vital signs. She took a small parcel off of her hip and went down the stairs. She walked over to where some of Flare's internal fluids had pooled on the floor. The girl opened the parcel to take out a pair of gloves, and a small glass vial. Making sure to stay out of the way of a nearby saw, she edged closer to fiery femme, clearly meaning to take a sample of the energon. Her thin flaxen eye brows pulled down as she concentrated on her goal.

"Be careful, the Energon could burn you." Flare cautioned. Her warning didn't have the desired effect though, because the sound of her voice startled the girl so much that she jumped back and almost dropped the vial. Then she had to jump again because the first one had brought her dangerously close to a saw. This time her data pad clattered to the floor.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to startle you." Flare said, a little confused by her reaction. The girl looked at her with wide stunned eyes.

"You can talk." The girl spoke for the first time. Flare frowned.

"Of course I can talk. What were you expecting?" The girl looked nervous, she shakily got up. She quickly glanced at the working men, none of them had noticed the little incident.

"Well, whenever I heard Silas or the soldiers talking about you, or...um...the others like you, they always said things like you being a 'marvel of engineering' and that we could reverse engineer technology from you. I guess, it kind of gave me the impression that you weren't sentient." To avoid looking at the Autobot she quickly grabbed her data pad and started inspecting it for damage. Compared to the other humans she had seen this young one seemed so delicate, and the girl's obvious anxiety made Flare uncomfortable. She decided to try and do something about it.

"We didn't get properly introduced did we? My designation is Stellar Flare, but most bots just call me Flare." She paused for a response. The girl just nodded slowly. "Do you have a designation?" Flare prodded.

"Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Rhea Rimmer."

"There, that wasn't so hard was it?" Flare said with a grin. The edge of Rhea's lips twitched and then formed an small, but genuine, smile. But the smile quickly disappeared and she glanced back at the soldiers at the monitors. Thankfully, they seemed to be oblivious to the exchange that just took place.

"Sorry, but I still need to take a sample of your, um, blood." Rhea pulled on the gloves. "Silas expects it to be in the lab by the end of the hour." Flare vented a sigh.

"Oh, alright. But, like I said, be careful." The girl nodded. She took a syringe out of the package and used it to get some of the energon into a the vial.

"You seem a little young to be here. How did you end up here?" Flare asked as Rhea found a stopper to put in the vial. Rhea paused, but didn't look up.

"My father works here." Before Flare could ask any more questions she packed up everything and quickly trotted back up the stairs. Just before leaving, she looked over her shoulder at Flare. As she looked at the instruments cutting into Flare's plating her expression became troubled. She shook herself and walked out.


	3. Chapter 3

First off, I want to say thanks to the people who wrote reviews.

**Arsenal 18**- Thanks for the encouragement! I helps to know that the story is being well received.

**4elementsfan4621**- I think your rant may have summed up what a lot of people feel about MECH by now. They're the guys we just love to hate. :)

Anyway, here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.<p>

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><p>"They had been heritors and subject of cruelty and outrage so long that nothing could have startled them but a kindness" -A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court.<p>

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><p><em>Vrooooom! <em>

Three Autobots raced through the woods. The two wheeler had a much easier time going around the trees than than the others did. It was especially hard for Bulkhead, whose larger size had him scraping against almost every tree they went past.

**Crack- Bam- Thud- Screeeeech!**

_'It's a good thing we have a scanner to search with, because we certainly won't be sneaking up on anyone like this.' _Arcee thought as Bulkhead's wheels cracked against another fallen log. Birds and other native critters squeaked and squawked at the unusual presence in the forest.

"Alright guys," Arcee said over Bulk and Bee's coms "the forest is getting pretty dense here. Let's switch forms until it thins out."

Bumblebee buzzed thankfully as they returned to bi-pedal form.

"I didn't think trees could pack such a punch." Bulkhead groaned.

"They do when you ram into them like that. I'm surprised you don't have a few dents in your armor." the blue femme quipped. Bulkhead laughed.

"It's gonna take more than some trees to put a scratch on me."

"Still nothing on the scanner Bee?" Arcee asked. The yellow mech shook his head and his beep sounded disappointed.

"No improvement from Optimus and Ratchet's side either." She said with a frown. They'd been searching for hours, but so far they didn't seem to be getting any closer to finding Flare.

"Well, we're not gonna find her standing around here. Let's go." Bulkhead started walking, he still couldn't avoid scraping against the trees though.

"Take it easy, Bulk. It won't do us much good to find them if they hear us coming a mile away." The blue femme chided him. The large mech just grunted, but he did try to make his steps lighter.

"Is there something on your mind Bulkhead? You seem to be getting really into this, more than usual I mean." He paused, and looked at the smaller bot.

"Arcee, I saw what MECH had been doing to Breakdown. He was pretty beat up by the time I got there, and I know how hard it is to get a good dent in him. I just want to make sure we get there before they do something to her that can't be fixed." It wasn't often that Bulkhead sounded so solemn. Arcee's face fell. Bumblebee let out a stream of clicks and whistles. The basic translation being "Don't worry Arcee, we'll find her."

"Yeah, we won't let that happen to your friend." The green mech nodded enthusiastically.

"Thanks guys." she said with a grateful smile. Bulkhead grinned.

"Alright, now let's go find us a missing bot!"

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><p>The hallways were a buzz of activity as she walked towards the base debriefing room. The young girl was glad of that, when the hallways were noisy it felt like she could blend in and not stand out so much. She clutched her data pad close to her chest, a nervous habit she had developed. She was going to deliver a report to her superiors and get further orders. This alone had the power to make her nervous, Silas and his advisers were the most powerful people at MECH after all. But there was something else that had made her even more nervous. She had decided to ask them about the prisoner, about Flare.<p>

The strawberry blonde girl was intensely aware of how lightly she would have to step around this subject. Securing information and technology from the 'living machine' had become one of the main goals at MECH. Only a complete idiot would dare to suggest anything that could hinder Silas's plans, and the idea that they should let someone like Flare go would definitely count. She would have to be very careful not to give that impression. She wasn't sure why she had suddenly grown to be so concerned with the fate of this person. She hadn't been this concerned when they'd captured the other transformer, of course that one had never talked to her. Until Flare had spoken to her she hadn't realized that they were like actual people.

She arrived at the debriefing room and knocked on the door. She forced herself to loosen her grip on the data pad. There was no need to spell out how nervous she was to everyone in the room. A guard opened to door and let her in. Silas was at the head of a rectangular table, discussing their prisoner with the his advisers and the heads of different departments. They still referred to Flare as it, which kind of annoyed Rhea. Not that anyone would be able to tell that by looking at her, it was better not to let your superiors know how you felt about their orders. They didn't really care if you liked them or not, and openly being upset over them only got you punished or reassigned. She didn't want either of those to happen, not this time. Once Silas noticed her standing by the door he called her over.

"I assume you have a report for us." He stated in his proper military tone. Rhea nodded.

"Yes sir. I delivered the sample to the lab. They gave me a report to give the the lead tech and medical personnel." Silas nodded for her to give it to them. She walked down the table and gave the data pad to a black haired man and a red haired woman sitting next to each other near the middle of the table. She stepped back as they looked over it, pausing to gather her courage.

"Sir?" She said, gaining the attention of almost everyone at the table. Their gazes seemed to make the room's temperature rise several degrees, and it was suddenly much harder to keep her voice steady.

"I was wondering about the prisoner. If it's not too much to ask, how long do you think she will continue to function?" The girl spoke slowly, picking her vocabulary carefully.

"It's none of your business what happens to it, Cadet." A tan broad shouldered man with spiked dark hair and serious brown eyes growled at her. He was sitting close to Silas on the far side of the table. Rhea recognized him as Derek, one of MECH's Generals.

"I'm sorry sir." she responded quickly, shrinking at his tone. "I'm just very curious. I didn't mean to over step myself." Rhea lowered her head, looking repentant.

"General, there's no need squash the cadet's enthusiasm." Silas spoke before other man could say anything. "I've been rather curious of that myself. What do you think Doctor Minerva?" The thin woman with the wavy red hair whom Rhea had given the data pad to looked up.

"We don't know for certain, sir. However, the data we've collected so far suggests that they'll continue to function as long as the heart area remains in tact." Silas nodded.

"We'll have to keep that in mind." He then motioned for Rhea to come back towards him. She did so without hesitation.

"You have more orders for me sir?"

"Yes. Since you find the work on our living machine so fascinating, then you can be the one to take a hand held scanner and go over some of the body's more intricate parts. Unfortunately our larger scanners aren't yet set up to report the finer details of these machines. I'll have instructions sent to operation room with the all details. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"I'm glad you find the work engaging child, but next time you would be wise not to interrupt a meeting to voice it. You're dismissed, cadet."

"Yes sir, thank you sir." she nodded to him and quickly left the room.

She let out a long relieved sigh once the door was closed behind her. It was a good thing that they had believed she had asked out innocent curiosity. It hadn't really been a lie, she'd seen some of the data and she found the biology of these beings very interesting. But the real reason she'd asked was to try and figure out much more damage Flare could take. It turns out that not even Silas had a definite answer.

It wasn't often that Rhea was involved in MECH's high priority projects. Now that she was involved in one, she found that she didn't like it. She'd never felt this uncomfortable in her work before. Despite this, she couldn't help feeling a little pleased by what Silas had said. He was glad of something she had done; the gladness was for a false motive, but he still said he was glad. The small high from the almost praise wouldn't last though. Rhea felt like she really needed to talk to Flare again. Hopefully Flare would be around long enough for her to get that second chance.

* * *

><p>It was quiet in the operation room, which Flare was grateful for. The first reason was because the constant drone of the saws and blow torches had really started to get on her nerves, the second was that their quietness meant that the instruments weren't on and tearing into her plating. She wasn't sure why they were off, though she knew it wasn't on purpose. She'd overheard one of the soldiers say something about the power flow being interrupted.<p>

The door opened and the youngling she'd met earlier, Rhea, walked in. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of Flare. Probably because she looked like a mess, with all the new gashes and cuts in her armor. The people operating on her certainly weren't wasting any time. Rhea talked to one of the men at the monitors before walking down the stairs and approaching her feet. She flipped open a hand held silvery metal device, which she used to direct a beam of green light at her ankles. Flare guessed it was a scanner of some kind. The child worked her up towards Flare's head, scanning various areas of her frame along the way.

"Hello Flare." The girl quietly greeted once she made it Flare's shoulders.

"Hey Rhea." Flare greeted, picking up on the reason for being quiet. No noisy saws or torches to drown out the conversation and hide it from the soldiers.

Rhea pressed a few buttons on the scanner and the green beam started going over her spark chamber. With her pain sensors off she hadn't felt it on the other parts of her body, but when the beam went over her spark it felt tingly, and made Flare giggle a little. Rhea raised her eyebrows.

"That's not quite the reaction I was expecting." the girl commented. "Do you feel anything else with your pain receptors off?"

"Not much, but that's a good thing. When I get out of here it'll make it easier for the team to locate me before I shut down." _I may not be able to transform with all this damage though._ She thought to herself.

"You know someone is coming for you?" Rhea looked surprised. Flare nodded.

"I talked to my friends before I landed. I know they'll be searching for me. I just need to hold out long enough or find a way to escape so they can find me." Flare spoke confidently, even though part of her didn't feel that way. She had faith in Arcee and Team Prime, but she wasn't sure how much longer this could be drawn out.

"That must be nice to know." Rhea gave a small sigh. She highly doubted that anyone here would come looking if she disappeared. She wasn't important enough. Her eyes trailed over the femme's frame, making note of all the injuries.

"Flare...I...I'm really sorry about all of this. I'm sorry you ended up here, and I'm sorry that this is being done to you. I suppose that doesn't make up for it though..." She let the sentence trail off.

"If you feel so bad about it, then why don't you do something about it? You're on the inside here, you might be able to find a way to help me out." Flare looked up at her hopefully, but Rhea's eyes were wide with fear.

"What? Me? No, no I couldn't! There's no way Silas would stand for it, you're a top priority here. Once he found out it was me, and I guarantee you that he would find out, I would be beaten and in the brig by the end of the day. And that's if I'm lucky!" somehow she managed to keep her terrified refusal as a whisper.

"Couldn't your father help protect you?" There was a long moment of silence after Flare's question.

"My father is completely dedicated to MECH's cause." the human finally responded.

"Well, you could come with me. I'd make sure nothing bad happened to you." Rhea looked thoughtful for a moment, but shook her head.

"Flare, I'm sorry, but I just can't. This place, these people, they're all I know. They're all I have in the world. To betray them like that..." She closed her eyes, and her shoulders slumped.

"It's okay, youngling." Flare murmured softly. "I understand." Rhea's eye's flew open and she looked at Flare in shock.

"It's hard to stand up to people you respect isn't it?" Flare said, looking the girl straight in the eyes. "It makes it even harder when they are people you've grown up with. Even if they are doing something you don't like, that doesn't stop it from being difficult and painful. I can't blame you for feeling that way, and I can't criticize you for trying to be loyal."

Rhea just looked at her with the same stupefied expression. The scanner in her hand beeped, and she looked down at it with confusion. Almost like she had forgotten it was there.

"Looks like your job is done." Flare smiled sadly at her. "You seem like a pretty decent youngling, I'm glad I got to talk to you. It's a shame you ended up here." the Autobot found it comforting that not every human she met so far acted like a sadistic aft.

"Yeah, I'm starting to think that too." Rhea muttered. She took a couple steps back toward the stairs. "I'm sorry I can't do more. Flare, I...thank you."

"Cadet!" Rhea jumped and turned to face the soldier at the top of the stairs. "Doctor Minerva just sent a message. She wants to know what's taking so long with those scans."

"I just finished. Tell her I'm on my way." The soldier nodded to her and went back to send the message. As soon as his back turned she quickly whispered to Flare.

"I'll try."

With that Rhea jogged up the stairs and out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p>"Optimus, I've got something."<p>

Prime stopped and turned to medic. Ratchet and Optimus had also switched to bi-pedal form to get around the trees.

"Have you picked up on Stellar Flare's signal?" he questioned. Ratchet nodded, looking down at his scanner which had started to beep quietly.

"I believe so, it's east of this location. The signal is still weak at this range, but it's enough to give us a direction to go off of." Optimus nodded to him, and then put a servo to his helm to activate his comm.

_"Arcee, come in."_

_ "I'm here Sir."_

_"Ratchet has detected an Autobot signal. Follow it and rendezvous with us once you arrive."_ Optimus sent a burst of code along the link, telling Arcee the general area that the signal was coming from.

"_On our way sir!"_ Arcee's voice cried excitedly before the link was terminated.

"It's a good thing I taught Rafael to activate the ground bridge," Ratchet said as he activated his own comm link to contact base. "it looks like we need to enter new coordinates for the next one."

As Ratchet spoke to Rafael the two of them started heading for the signal.

* * *

><p>Flare stared up at the ceiling. Observing the humans hadn't gotten her anywhere, she still had no idea how she could escape from here. Well, a few ideas had run through her processor, but each one was more far-fetched than the last. The femme heard the sound of the door swinging open, and looked up just in time to see a small device come sailing through the door and attach to the floor. The men at the monitors only had enough time to look at the device before it burst with light. It sent blue bolts of energy racing across the floor. The soldiers convulsed when it reached them, and then went still as the bolts disappeared.<p>

_ 'What in the name of Primus was that?'_ Flare thought it surprise. A moment later Rhea dashed into to room and shut the door behind her. Her honey hair was disheveled, several locks had gotten loose from her braid, she had a pack on her back, and had some kind of gun slung across her shoulder.

"Is that offer to come with you still open?" The girl asked as she crossed over to the monitors.

"Of course." Flare replied after a moment, still getting over her surprise.

"Good," the human said with a relieved smile. She carefully leaned over one of the soldiers slumped in his chair to reach the center keyboard at the monitor station. After she punched something into the computer the instruments cutting into Flare stopped and retracted back into the ceiling. "Because I'd really hate to be stuck here after Silas finds out about this."

Rhea continued to type. Soon the restraints around the Autobot hissed and retracted, allowing Flare to stand up. Despite how tired and out of sorts she still felt, she couldn't help smiling at finally being able to move.

"Can you walk?" Rhea asked as Flare stood to her full height.

"With my pain sensors off? Yes." Flare watched the little human trot down the stairs.

"So what happened? Last time we talked you seemed pretty set on staying here. Why do you suddenly want to leave your home?" Rhea looked up at the fiery colored femme, the determination in the child's eyes made her look older.

"I did some thinking, and I realized that this place isn't home. It hasn't been home in a long time. You've been very friendly towards me even though you have no reason for it, and that's a lot better than what I usually get here. It's not everyday that someone offers me a chance at a different kind of life, and I realized I should take the opportunity while it's still available." Rhea shifted a little, bringing her head down. "This may be betraying MECH, but if I did nothing it would betray you." The femme nodded solemn understanding, but she inside was happy that she had made such a significant impression on the young one.

"Well, let's make sure that we both get our chance at a different life. Do you have a plan for getting us out of here?"

"Yes, I do." Rhea's tone became much more business like "I was able to access the Security system and find out where all the soldiers are posted. Hopefully we can avoid most of them." She set the gun down and started going through her back pack for the proper data pad.

"Here it is." She showed the screen to Flare, which now depicted a detailed map of that section of the base, with red dots marking guard posts.

"Impressive. Did you talk to your father to help you set this up?" Rhea's face fell suddenly, her expression caught between anger and sadness.

"I tried talking to him, but he would never help me with this. It was stupid of me, I should have realized that talking to him wouldn't change anything. Though, it did make me realize what I had to do." the girl gently touched her right cheek, her gaze distant. Flare noticed that the skin on that side of her face was discolored. While the rest of her skin was a light pinkish tan, that side of her face was becoming a mixture of violet and brown. She had no idea what that meant though. Rhea's eyes refocused after a moment. She quickly changed the subject.

"In any case we should leave quickly. Those soldiers will wake up eventually, and there's a good chance they will be discovered before that." Flare was curious about what had happened between the youngling and her creator, but now was not the time to bring it up. Flare lowered her servo and waited for the human to climb on. After a moment of hesitation, Rhea stepped into her open palm. Flare lifted her up and placed the girl on her shoulder.

"All set?" Flare asked. Rhea adjusted her position slightly, and made sure her gun was in a ready position. "Are you actually going to use that on your own people?" Flare gave the gun a sideways glance.

"It's only a stun gun." Rhea assured. "It won't cause permanent damage. Besides, I never did score well in marksmanship. That's why I am, well, I was part of the tech crew." Flare nodded, seeming mollified.

"Well, tell me which way to go then." Flare started walking as Rhea gave directions. The two of them quickly disappeared in the darkness of the tunnel.

* * *

><p>Sorry that this chapter is so much shorter. It just seemed like the best stopping place for what I have planned for the next one.<p>

A little more than a week and Transformers Prime will be back! I can hardly wait! :D

In the meantime, have a Happy Thanksgiving!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my Ocs.

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><p>"We're almost out." Rhea whispered. They'd managed to find a couple of auxiliary hallways that were just big enough for Flare, and had used them to avoid the guards in the tunnel. Now the Autobot and human were paused near the last door separating them from the outside world. But that also meant there was a good number of soldiers guarding it.<p>

"Can we get rid of the guards, or should I rush it?" Flare asked her companion.

"I could try sending them a fake command, get them to temporarily leave their station." the girl looked around the tunnel, and noticed a panel on the opposite wall. "I might be able to get into communications through there, let's have a look." Flare took a few steps, when suddenly a wailing alarm pierced the air. Rhea's face went pale.

"Forget everything I just said, RUN!"

Flare didn't have to be told twice. She rushed forward, burst through the last door and didn't stop, her pedes pounding against the ground. Her sudden entrance surprised the group of soldiers, which was the only reason they didn't start shooting at her right away. Bullets dinged and lodged into her plating. Rhea managed to shoot a few blasts towards them, but it didn't do much to stop the shooting.

_ 'I wonder how much trouble I'll get into if I break Prime's rule about hurting humans.'_ The fiery femme thought wildly as she tried to get out of their range. The thought was pushed aside. No matter what these people had done to her an order from the last of the Primes was not to be taken lightly, but sweet Primus it was a tempting thought.

Flare's long strides soon had the two of them at the end of the tunnel. Flare transformed her hands into a pair of medium sized cannons, and blasted the door open. The pair exited from the tunnel in a cloud of dust, making Rhea cough. They were still near a forest, a small dirt road barely visible among the trees. Behind them was a small mountain, which the base was built into. The day had turned to dusk, and the sunset had turned the sky into an array of orange and reds at the horizon, which gradually turned into pinks and purples. Unfortunately the human and Autobot didn't have time to appreciate the beauty of the scenery.

_'I might be able to lose them in the forest if I switch forms. My current vehicle mode should be able to handle the terrain.'_ Flare thought.

"Hang on a second, I'm going to try something." The femme gently grabbed her companion and placed her on the ground. Flare knelt and tried to transform. She got part of the way through the process before the shifting gears got stuck and started clanking noisily. _'Scrap.'_ She returned to her original form. The rumbling sound of engines started up behind them, coming from the tunnel they'd just left. Flare cursed again, grabbed a very worried looking Rhea and started to run. She went along the base of the mountain, hoping to find some rough terrain that the humans wouldn't be able to manage.

"Did you think about where to go after we got out?" Flare asked as she ran. Rhea bit her lip, looking sheepish.

"Well, no. I thought you would handle that part." Flare gave her a disbelieving look. "I don't get out of the base much okay! I didn't exactly have a lot of planning time either." Flare vented a sigh.

"We can argue later. Now we need to figure out what to do." The engine noises were getting louder. Rhea looked behind them to see a pack of armored cars in the distance.

"Can you call your friends?" Rhea asked, continuing to eye the cars.

"I'll try." She didn't know if the Autobots would be close enough to receive it, but now was a good time to find out. As she raised her servo to activate her comm, she didn't notice that a thwacking noise had joined the rumble of engines.

"Is anyone re-"

"Flare, duck!"

The femme quickly dodged to the side. A blue beam barely missed her. She looked up to see a helicopter closing in on them.

"Silas." Rhea breathed fearfully.

"I'm guessing that's the same weapon that knocked me out before." Flare's suspicion was confirmed with Rhea's nod. Suddenly they both noticed the engine sound increase. Ahead of them another troop of armored vehicles was approaching. Now they had MECH both behind and ahead, a mountain to their left, a dense forest on their right, and a helicopter to top it all off. Flare turned her head to look at Rhea.

"You ready to fight?" the girl swallowed nervously, but adjusted the grip on her gun and found a firm position on the Autobot's shoulder.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Flare charged the group behind them, catching many of the drivers off guard. Her visor lowered, and her aiming program switched on. She let off of a volley of shots. The heavy cars rocked dangerously, many fell on their sides from the blasts. MECH soldiers weren't easily scared though, they still got out and started shooting at the pair. As she fought the Autobot tried to keep her body angled in a way that would keep her small companion out of the line of fire. It helped, but didn't work completely as she heard the girl cry in pain as a couple shots grazed her. Rhea tried to help, but only managed to stun a couple people. Flare kept her shots striking the ground near the humans. She hoped that making them close but not direct would make the humans back off. It wasn't working.

"Flare! Look out!"

The helicopter had repositioned itself and was about to fire at Autobot again. She sidestepped to avoid it. The blue beam missed Flare all together, but sizzled across Rhea's side. The little human went rigid, letting out a strangled gasp. Then her body went slack and she slid off of Flare's shoulder.

The femme was quick to catch her and brought her close to her chest plate, cradling her with one arm. Anxiety pumped through Flare's spark. _'Is she okay?'_ The Autobot didn't have time to check. Bullets were still slamming against her armor. She couldn't put off fighting them any longer, but just now she didn't have a problem with that.

Now aimed the humans directly. The men were thrown up into the air by her blasts, and several seemed to vanish, but still they held their ground. She couldn't keep this up, her body was under so much strain from her injuries. At the moment Flare couldn't feel pain, but pain was just a signal from your body that something was wrong. Just because she couldn't hear it didn't mean her body had nothing to complain about. Plus now she was down to one gun, since she had to use her other servo to protect Rhea. The other troop of vehicles was approaching fast, and would soon start shooting at her. The helicopter was coming around again, the gun charging for another shot. Flare prepared to dodge again, when a pale blue blast hit the helicopters tail. The chopper was sent careening through the air and just managed to avoid crashing into the trees.

"Flare!" Arcee's called as she and several other Autobots appeared from behind her. Never had a single voice been able to fill Flare with so much relief. A large green mech ran forward and slammed his fist into the group of soldiers that was approaching flame colored femme. Several cars were launched into the air. The men were prepared to start fighting the newcomers as well, but an authoritative voice crackled over their radios.

"All troops, disengage and initiate Omega protocols." All the soldiers jumped back into their vehicles and started to retreat to the base. The large mech looked ready to follow them, but a signal from Optimus kept him in place. Flare ran over to her rescuers.

"Talk about arriving just in the nick of time." She called happily as she ran, her tiredness forgotten for a moment. Every one of the Autobots smiled.

"Come on, let's get you back to base." Arcee's face glowed. Her friend was damaged but alive, she felt a great weight lift from her shoulders. She wasn't going to lose someone else, not today at least.

"Raf, we need a bridge to our current coordinates." The red and white mech said into his comm. Flare vaguely noticed that Raf seemed like an odd Autobot name. She quickly checked her servo, the human's chest rose and fell, and Flare assumed the movement meant she wasn't dead. She was still worried though. She turned to Optimus as a swirling green portal opened near them.

"Sir, I need to tell you something."

"Wait until we are back at base. I don't want to run the risk of Silas changing his mind."

The violet accented femme nodded, they'd probably be able to get better care for the girl back at the base anyway. The Autobots quickly ran through the bridge. As Flare stepped into the Autobot base, she was surprised to see four humans standing near the controls of the ground bridge. A young female with a pink stripe in her hair ran forward to the railing.

"Alright! You found her!" She spread her arms widely. "Welcome to Autobot HQ! I'm Miko. Do you want a tour? I can give you one." Miko looked the femme up and down before turning to the green mech. "What gives Bulk? You go on a mission and the one you're rescuing comes back with more battle scars than you do?"

Flare wasn't quite sure what to think of her strange amount of excitement. She watched the black haired boy greet Arcee with a relieved smile, Bumblebee and the smaller boy also seemed pretty happy to see each other. Flare glanced at the blonde girl still hidden by her arm, and turned to Optimus again.

"Sir, we need to-"

"The tour can wait, you need medical attention. Let's get the arm looked at first." Ratchet cut her off and started to lead her the med bay.

"My arm?" She confusedly looked at her free arm, it didn't have any extra damage on it. Ratchet sighed.

"Not that one, the one you keep holding to your chest. I assume you weren't using it in battle for a reason."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. There is a reason, but not because it has more damage." She shifted her arm, and showed him the unconscious girl cradled to her chest. Ratchets optics widened.

"Why in the name of Primus do you have a human with you?"His words caught the attention of everyone in the room. When they saw what he was talking about a chorus of voices started asking who the girl was and why she was with Flare. The flame colored Autobot couldn't handle all of the noise bouncing around in her exhausted processor.

"STOP!" Flare's echoing shout silenced them. "I can explain everything. But we should get Rhea examined first and make sure she can be repaired." She took a few steps toward the med bay before her damaged legs buckled, making her stumble. The girl slipped out of her grip, but Optimus was close and caught the human before she fell to the ground,. Lifting her gently, Optimus brought everything under control.

"Ratchet, you start repairs on Flare." The medic nodded, looking ashamed as he realized how unprofessional it had been to let something so small distract him from an injured bot. He and Arcee helped the femme, and Optimus turned to their human friends.

"June, I believe we require your expertise." The woman nodded and quickly scrambled down the stairs to follow Optimus. The small group headed into the Med-bay, Flare quickly explaining to June how Rhea got hurt. After a moment of looking at each other, the rest of the bots and humans followed. June was already working on the girl, and Ratchet was running scans on Flare. The taller boy ran over to help with Rhea.

"So, what happened?" the pig tailed girl demanded.

"Miko!" The small brown haired boy chided.

"What? I want to know."

"Quiet, both of you, I'm about to start some sensitive repairs." The medic snapped at them as he ran scans over the body of the purple accented two wheeler. He firmly, but gently pushed down on Flare's shoulder, making her lay down.

"It's okay. I can explain while you work." She soothed from her place on the berth. Ratchet just grunted something about keeping still and got back to work. Flare glanced over at Rhea. Optimus had lain her on a human sized berth on the opposite side of the room. June had already attached the child to human medical machines. She didn't know much about medicine, but the monitors seemed to say that her vitals were stable for now. Satisfied that the youngling was being cared for, she began the story.

* * *

><p>Silas stood erect in the briefing room, giving orders to each soldier that brought in reports of damage and casualties. After all reports were in and everyone had been assembled, he addressed them.<p>

"I expect by now you've been able to figure out how our prize escaped?" Silas waited as they all looked at each other. No one wanted to be the first to speak.

"It was Cadet Rhea, sir. She knocked out the guards and set the robot free. She also went with the robots when they left." Derek's wary voice finally broke the silence. His normally gruff attitude replaced by the anxiety of being the one to 'break the news' to their leader. Silas only nodded.

"Good. It's nice to know you're at least smart enough to figure that much out." They all started in confusion, but quickly hid it. Everyone had been expecting him to go on one of his rare, but infamous, tirades at the news of the young woman's treachery. He didn't even seem surprised. Their leader sat down at the end of the table.

"Have the proper protocols been put into effect?" He asked Derek, since apparently he was the only who still had a voice.

"Of course, sir." Silas nodded, and began planning his next move. _'Now, how best to proceed?'_


	6. Chapter 6

Hi! Before we get to the latest chapter I'd like to ask for a small favor. I'd really appreciate it if I could get a few reviews. Don't get me wrong, I don't get my entire motivation from people's reviews. I've got a really good idea of where I want this story to go, and I'm determined to get it there. However, some feedback would be nice. No one I know is very familiar with this Transformers series yet (though I'm trying to change that), so I don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of. So if there is something about this story that you really like, or that you think could be improved upon, I would love to hear about it! Thanks! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my Ocs.

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><p>As Flare told her story Miko somehow managed to keep from interrupting, but once the story came full circle she couldn't contain herself.<p>

"This is awesome! You so belong here! You can kick MECH aft **and** already have your own human, that has to be a sign."

"A sign from what?" Bulkhead scratched his head in confusion.

"Never mind." Miko waved her hand dismissively. She was still a little disappointed that Bulkhead hadn't come back with a good MECH bashing story. At the light sound of footsteps everyone turned around. June was walking over from the human sized stretcher, Jack trailing behind her. Her shoulders were slumped in fatigue, but her expression was satisfied. The heart monitor beeped slowly and steadily in the background, letting them know that Rhea was sound asleep.

"Everything seems to be under control. She has a burn in her side from...whatever it was that she got shot with. She also had a few gashes that needed tending to. The bandages on the burn will need to be changed everyday, and I'll have to get her some antibiotics. Her heart-rate should be checked steadily over the next few days, to make sure there aren't any lingering effects from the shock. Other than that, she should be fine." Mrs. Darby would have liked to take her to an actual hospital, but, with the strange circumstances of the girl's arrival, she got the impression that wouldn't happen unless her injuries got worse.

"How are things going on this end?" Jack asked.

"I've gotten the worst of the injuries stabilized, but she's going to need some follow up exams. Plus she'll need plenty of recharge."

"No argument here." the red-orange femme laughed. Ratchet had a reputation of using his wrench as anesthesia when bots didn't follow up on that last part.

"So where is this girl going to stay? She left her father behind at one of MECH's bases, right? So where is she going to stay now?" June questioned the group.

"I have given that some thought." Optimus's deep voice rumbled. "We could contact Agent Fowler and have him find a suitable place for her. The other option is to keep her here, at least for a while." Miko's face lit up at the thought of having another person on base to hang out with, and rope into watching monster movies. Some of the others seemed less cheerful at the idea.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Optimus?" Ratchet glanced at the sleeping girl.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Raf finally spoke up. "I mean, she sounds pretty nice and she could probably give you a lot of inside information about MECH."

"For starters, I have enough work to do keeping this place operational. I don't need another human around to get underfoot." The humans shuddered at the mental image of that. "Secondly, we have to consider the possibility that she was placed in Flare's path on purpose."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked with a frown.

"He means that young Rhea could be some sort of spy." Optimus clarified. Bumblebee beeped in understanding.

"So, what? She's gonna try to sneak out in the middle of the night, call up Silas, and tell him where the base is?" Miko lifted her eyebrows a bit.

"Unfortunately, that might be the case. Silas seems to know when to grasp at opportunity, and I don't think he is above using a child." The bot's leader spoke gravely.

"Then why are we still talking about it? Shouldn't we get her out of here? She works for MECH for spark's sake. She's probably helped them build weapons and stuff. Was it even a good idea to bring her along?" The hefty green mech didn't mean to sound uncaring, but even Flare had admitted that the girl's sudden change of heart was kinda surprising. Plus he just hated MECH on principle.

"What was I supposed to do? Just leave her there, with _them_?" The fiery bot shook her helm "I couldn't abandon her like that." Arcee nodded.

"I'm with Flare on this one. Silas was willing to sacrifice both June and Jack for a shot at me. There's no telling what would have happened to her if she stayed behind." Flare looked surprised at this, she would have to ask about that later.

"Look, I know how awful MECH is, and she probably did help with some of their 'projects'. But as far as I could tell she was pretty low in the ranks, placing all of their shame on her shoulders would be like blaming a Vehicon for everything Megatron did. And in the end she chose to come with me, to help me. Doesn't that count for something?" Prime nodded, though not everyone looked entirely convinced.

"Agreed. Given the circumstances we will have to take precautions, but she has done us no harm so far. I believe we should give her the chance to prove herself."

Flare beamed. She had always admired how Optimus did his best to see the good in everyone, and give people the benefit of the doubt. He was well known for it in both factions, for better or for worse. Despite all the years of war he was still full of compassion; it was something she tried to emulate. With this thought, she felt a little bit of guilt settle over her.

"Optimus Prime, I know you've ordered us not to harm humans, and during the fight I ignored that. I'm sorry."

"There is no need to apologize. You held off as long as you could, and in the end you were doing it in defense of yourself and another. I only wish this whole situation could have been avoided." Flare smiled gratefully up at their leader.

A soft moan caught her attention. Her optics flickered over to Rhea, whose eyes were darting back and forth beneath her lids. Her hands clutched at the blanket June had draped over her. The nurse trotted over to see if she was okay.

* * *

><p>Rhea's mind wandered as she slept, images and memories floating through her vision. At first they were random and very peaceful: Scientific equations, technical schematics, a woman with wavy blonde hair smiling at her lovingly, and at some point she was chasing a giraffe through the decks of the Star ship Enterprise. But progressively they became darker, and the memories more recent.<p>

"_Are you questioning my judgment on what is best for MECH?" Her father's eyes flashed dangerously. The girl started to back away. It wasn't often that her father became truly angry, but that only made it more awful when he did give way to temper. _

_ "I just thought that-" He backhanded her across the face. The hit sent her sprawling sideways, and she landed with a thud on the hard floor. Before she could recover he grabbed the girl by her braid and yanked her back up. Their faces were only inches apart._

_ "You should know your place here **Cadet**. You are in this position to do and obey, not to question or think." Rhea cringed, and struggled to get away from him, but his grip was firm._

"_You do know how to obey an order, don't you child?"_

Something touched her. She jolted awake, breathing heavily.

"Whoa, take it easy. You're alright, you're safe." Rhea looked toward the source of the soothing voice. A woman with long raven hair tied back in a loose pony tail was looking down at her in concern. She was in a sea green nurse uniform, and had a hand on Rhea's shoulder.

_'Did Silas hire a new doctor?'_ She wondered vaguely. No, that couldn't be right. The recovery room at the base had white walls, and more beds, here she just saw random equipment and a wall of rock. Slowly, recent events came back to her; the argument with her father, breaking out, getting pinned down once they left the base.

"Where's Flare? Is she alright?" She asked the mystery woman.

"Right over here, and doing just fine thanks to Ratchet." Flare's now familiar voice chirped from across the room.

Rhea's face brightened at the sound of her voice; Flare looked so much better now. Not all of the cuts and slashes were gone from her armor, but she was definitely better. Then she took in the rest of the scene.

Normally she would have been drawn in by the machines and tools covering the floor and wall around Flare. She had never seen anything quite like them, and her curiosity urged her to run over and investigate. But that desire paled with the fact that there were also five new robots around the flame colored femme. One of them, a red and white one, was busy using some of the strange tools, but the other four were looking at her, staring, right at her. Fear, both instinctual and conditioned, twisted her insides. The enormity of what she had done suddenly hit her. What had she been thinking? She had no idea what was going to happen. She belonged to their enemies, would they treat her the same way MECH treated their enemies? Wh-

"HI!" The overly cheerful voice made Rhea jump so much that she almost fell off of the stretcher. Three other kids, around her own age, had appeared behind the woman. A slim black haired girl with pigtails pushed her way past the two boys to get closer.

"I'm Miko!" she said brightly, completely oblivious to how the heart monitors frequency had spiked.

"My name is Rhea Rimmer." she replied shakily.

"I know. Flare told us. This is Jack and this is his mom, June. She's a nurse. The blue bot over there is Arcee, she's their guardian. And this is Raf, he's super good with computers. His guardian is Bumblebee, the cute yellow bot. And the big bot over there is Bulkhead, he's MY guardian. And the red and white bot is Ratchet, he's the medic, but he's mostly just grumpy." The medic looked up his work long enough to make a noise of protest, but Miko continued. "And of course last but not least we have the leader of the Autobots himself, Optimus Prime!" Miko rushed through introductions, gesturing at everyone as she mentioned them. A few waved when their names came up.

"Miko, have you been downing energy drinks again?" Jack asked, slightly worried. June pulled back on the excited girl's shoulder.

"Easy, Miko. Give her some room to breathe." She appreciated the Asian girl's enthusiasm, but the young woman had just woken up. She probably didn't even catch half of what Miko had just said.

"Jack, June, Arcee, Raf, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet, Optimus Prime." The honey blonde girl reiterated. Upon hearing Optimus described as the leader of the Autobots she had automatically straightened, her shoulders went back, her hands folded neatly in her lap, and her head bowed slightly.

"It's an honor to meet all of you. I apologize for all the trouble that my former organization has caused you." Her voice took an a very formal tone. She studiously ignored the dull throb that started in her side.

Loud foot steps sounded on the floor, she looked up a bit, and noticed that Optimus Prime was walking over. Fear writhed inside of her again, not knowing what to expect of the large bot. Sure, Flare had been kind, but there were decent people in the lower ranks of MECH too. That didn't stop Silas from being, well, Silas. Optimus came close to the small berth, and knelt down, bringing his helm close to the young girl.

"Rhea Rimmer. You have no need to fear us. We will not harm you. I trust Flare's judgment in bringing you here, and your previous involvement with MECH will not change our vow to protect those under our care." Rhea kept her formal posture, but brought her eyes up to look into the Prime's optics. They shined with acceptance and understanding. Every word, spoken with compassion and honesty, eased her anxiety.

"Until you recover, I believe it is best that you remain here on base. But you will have to adapt to some rules." Rhea nodded her understanding.

"I would ask you not to leave the base or wander the base itself late at night. You should always inform one of us of your location. Also, you should not be near any of our equipment unsupervised."

"Is there any chance that last rule could be extended to the rest of the children?" Ratchet suggested eagerly. A quick look from Optimus silenced him. The Autobot leader stood up.

"Do you agree to these rules?"

"Yes, sir." Optimus nodded, satisfied.

"You will also require a guardian." He turned around. "Stellar Flare, may a trust you with this responsibility?"

Flare was a little taken aback. When the two of them had been escaping from MECH becoming a guardian hadn't been the first thing on her mind, but she kind of liked the idea.

"Yes, Optimus. I will gladly take on that role."

"What does that mean?" Rhea frowned in confusion.

"It just means that I'll be the one responsible for looking out for you." Flare clarified.

"Alright, everyone out." the CMO ordered. "You've all been crowding around the med-bay long enough." June joined him.

"He's right, now that things are settled they should both get some rest." She started to usher the kids out, Miko complaining loudly that they didn't even get a real chance to talk yet. The rest of the Autobots trudged off to do their own chores. That left just her, Ratchet, and Flare.

"Flare's going to make a full recovery, right?" The girl asked after watching the medic work for a few minutes.

"With rest, yes." he answered curtly. "Given the amount of time she spent at MECH's mercy I'm surprised the damage doesn't extend further."

"I was lucky." Flare admitted. "It's a good thing MECH was having power problems." A small mischievous light entered Rhea's eyes.

"Yes, that was quite lucky."

With a yawn she relaxed into the bed. That helped with the throb in her side, but the places where bullets had grazed her were starting to itch. She started up at the ceiling, her mind beginning to wander. How many times had she imagined this? None of her daydreams had ever gone quite like this, but it had still happened. How many comrades of hers had been killed during the escape? What would the consequences be for all of this? What was going to happen now?

Flare's mind was beginning to run along a similar vein. For a good while, all of her focus had been on getting to Earth. She hadn't really thought about what would happen when she got here. Arcee being here was a pleasant and much welcome surprise, but her other experiences made her realize that being here was going to be a lot different than any other outpost or ship.

Once Ratchet left, the hum of the computers helped both the human and Autobot get some much need rest.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry this took a little while. I didn't have much time to write during finals week. That's over now, so hopefully I'll have more time for this sort of thing. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

* * *

><p><em>A woman with wavy golden hair sat in a cushy chair, her voice filled the living room as she read from a large book. The young blonde girl sitting in her lap smiled happily. Her mommy's voice always sounded nicer when she was reading a story. The little girl didn't understand all of the words, but she always loved listening to the way her mother said them. <em>

_At the sound of door opening her mommy's warm brown eyes looked up from the book, and smiled at the man with short auburn hair who had just entered. _

"_Daddy!" The girl cried excitedly. She ran over to him and gave him a hug. Her father reached down a gloved hand and patted her on the head. _

"_It's good to see you too, but aren't you up a little late?" _

"_I told her she could stay up until you got home." Her mom explained, then smiled at her. "Alright, you've seen him, now get ready for bed and we'll come in and say goodnight." _

_Her mommy quickly shooed her away. The girl ran out of the living room, into the hallway and toward the stairs. Just before she started to climb up, the strawberry blond girl looked back at her parents. Daddy's normally hard face was softened by a smile as he told Mommy about how well the work was going, and how far they had come. Her mom hugged him, and he ran a hand through her golden hair. It made the girl happy to see them like that. They both worked very hard. She wasn't sure what they did, just that Mommy did something with numbers and Daddy worked with a lots of people. It must have been pretty important if they both cared about it so much. Before they could notice that she was watching, the young girl quietly went up to her room. _

_The same young girl, who was now able to understand many more words, crouched anxiously behind her new bedroom door. They had moved out of the house to live on base, so that work would be easier for her parents._

"_What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Her mother yelled. _

"_Teresa, I really think you're overreacting here." Her father cautioned. _

"_I'm not an idiot, I know what those equations are and what they can be used for. How can you think of doing something like this?"_

"_Because it's necessary."_

"_Necessary? You honestly can't think of __**any**__ other way to solve this problem?" Rhea pressed her ear closer to the door when her mom stopped shouting. "When this organization was first starting I didn't think it would evolve into this. I'm not sure I can keep doing this." _

"_Teresa, I've provided for you and Rhea very well all these years. I've worked with you and comforted you when the going got rough. Don't you think I deserve a little trust in return?"_

"_I know." She sighed in frustration. "I've gone along with everything you've told me, and I've tried to trust you. But it seems like each day this group is changing, turning into something dangerous. It amazes me that you can't see that, and if you keep insisting that we go along with it then I'm not going to stay here."_

_Her mother's words were followed by a deadly silence. The girl could feel the tension in the next room. Why did Mom have to go against Dad's plans and make him angry? Dad was nice when he wasn't angry. _

"_You know, I've been hearing some stories from the other men on base." Her father said quietly. "You really shouldn't let our daughter run around the base unsupervised so often. She could get hurt. It would be a shame to have to move her somewhere else...just to keep her safe, of course." _

_The pause that followed seem to last an eternity, but finally her mom spoke up. _

"_I'll get you the equations I was working on." She sounded tired, defeated. Rhea knew that would be the end of the argument. A door slammed loudly as her Dad left. _

Rhea's eyes fluttered open. She lay on a thin mattress in a sparsely decorated room, not that much different than the one she'd had back at MECH. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shake off the lingering emotions of her memory/dream. Things could change a lot over the course of a few years, or even a few days. She rolled out of bed and walked to the closet across the room. She pulled out a pair of jeans and a dark green long sleeve shirt. She hadn't been able to take many things when she left, so most of the items in her wardrobe had been gifted to her by June Darby. Once the nurse found out how little the girl had, she had insisted on giving Rhea some of their old clothes. The girl had tried saying that it wasn't necessary, but Mrs. Darby insisted and told her that she had planned on donating the clothes to charity anyway. June sometimes reminded her of her own mother, so generous and thoughtful. She must have thanked the woman a dozen times for providing clothes and bedding for her.

She lay the outfit on her bed, and also picked up the small teddy bear that had fallen to the floor during the night. The brown bear with a red sweater was one of the few things she'd brought along with her. She'd tried to only bring personal items, since Silas was known to put tracking devices on things that belonged to him. As she changed, she reflected on her new situation.

It had been a couple days since she had arrived here. Most of her time had been dedicated to setting up her new room and talking with Optimus and Flare, hearing about why they were on Earth and about the Decepticons. He had also helped with getting Flare settled at the base. It amazed her that she was being treated so well. Optimus had elaborated a bit more on where she was and wasn't allowed to go, and she readily agreed to all the rules he put down. At this point she was just grateful that they hadn't decided to interrogate her, that's what Silas did he they captured someone with valuable information. The medic had asked her once if there was any sort of information she could give them to help track down MECH, but she explained to him about the deserter protocols. In the event that anyone deserted or was captured by an enemy all the passwords, entry codes, and communication frequencies were changed, so she couldn't help in that department.

She was determined to find some way to become helpful though, for Flare's sake as well as her own. She pulled her shirt down carefully over her bandaged side, and decided that the pain wasn't enough to keep her off duty. Besides, if she didn't start contributing soon they might decide that she should be sent somewhere else. That would mean she would be completely on her own. Flare was the only friend she had now, she didn't want to lose her.

Now fully dressed, she sat on her bed and started to braid her hair. Hopefully if she became helpful in more practical areas then they wouldn't ask her much about Silas or MECH, which would be very lucky since she wasn't sure she could make herself talk about them. She had tried figuring out why the other kids were there, to get an idea of what her own role should be. Optimus had explained to her how Jack, Raf and Miko had come to join them, and she couldn't quite figure it out. By the sounds of it the kids were there just because they were in need of protection, and it would be dangerous for both them and the Autobots if they weren't there. Yet when she saw the Bots with their charges they didn't treat them like a burden or an assignment; maybe there was something she was missing. She stood up to look at herself in the mirror. She was presentable, though the clothes were a bit baggy and the bruise on her cheek was still visible. It had shifted to yellow, so at least it was healing. Satisfied that she was as prepared as she could be, she exited into the hallway in search of Flare.

* * *

><p>Ratchet picked up a tool and bent down near one of the computers in the main room. The medic took a certain amount of pleasure in performing repairs on the base's equipment. If there was too much going on it sucked the joy out of the chore, but that wasn't the case right now. The kids were at school, and every bot except Optimus was out patrolling. He looked forward to a few hours of peace and quiet.<p>

"Good Morning, Doctor." He jerked, and banged his helm against a shelf. _Scrap._ He'd forgotten that he'd be the one to keep an eye on the child while the others were out. He straightened, rubbing his helm. The strawberry blonde girl was standing on the floor by the metal stairs the humans used to get to the couch and TV. She looked up at him with concern.

"Are you alright, sir?"

"Of course I'm alright. What did you want?" He asked irritably. She looked down a bit at his tone.

"Would you happen to know where Flare is?"

"I finished the last of her major repairs last night, so she went on a patrol with Arcee. She'll be gone for several hours."

"I see." she nodded, before turning her gaze up to his distant face. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I prefer to do these things myself, less chance of someone making a mistake with it." Rafael was the only human he really trusted to be around his equipment. Plus, considering her questionable background...

"I understand sir. Is there anything else you would like me to do?" Ratchet sighed in frustration, he just wanted to finish the job he'd started.

"I'm busy right now. It would be most helpful to me if you found a place to be out of the way and **quiet**." Her face fell slightly, but she nodded and started to ascend the stairs next to her. With a huff, the red and white mech bent back down. He maneuvered around the machine to get a better angle and proceeded with the repair. After a while he found himself in need of a different tool. Getting up, he spotted their newest human friend on the old green couch. She sat with perfect posture, feet flat, hands folded in her lap, and eyes staring off into nothing. She didn't look around curiously or fiddle with anything, just sat there, patiently. He'd never seen a human child be so still before.

"You really want something to do?" He asked. The girl's eyes came back into focus and she turned towards him.

"I would love to help, in any way that I can." Ratchet looked around, and spotted the mop and bucket that he tried, in vain, to get Miko to use. He picked it up and offered it to the blue eyed girl.

"Do you mind cleaning?"

"Not at all." she smiled as she grasped the mop's wooden handle. "Where should I start?"

* * *

><p>On a dusty desert road two motorcycles sped between giant rock outcroppings. The blue bike was sleek and angular and moved confidently along the winding road. The other bike, a fiery orange color, was smoother and more streamlined, but lacked the confidence of the the motorcycle ahead of it. Both riders had faces concealed by dark helmets. Just by looking at them, no one passing would have guessed that the 'riders' were having a conversation.<p>

"Thanks for this Arcee, it feels great to finally get off base."

"No problem. You'll need to know the territory after all. Besides, it looked like you needed a break."

"You could say that." Flare admitted. She was getting along fine with the other bots, but this was the first time she'd been able to get out of the base and get some quality time with her old friend. It was also nice to get away from Rhea for a little while. She was starting to warm up to all of the kids, but her charge was getting on her nerves. The girl hadn't done anything really annoying, it was just that she wouldn't leave Flare alone. Rhea followed her around like- how did Miko put it?- like a lost puppy.

Arcee suddenly put on a burst of speed and enjoyed the Cybertronian equivalent of a small adrenaline rush as she raced around a curve in the road. Flare held back and took the turn slowly and carefully.

"Come on Flare, I thought you wanted to test your new wheels." Arcee teased. This was Flare's first time in her new vehicle mode, but the amount of caution she was taking was a little ridiculous. It wasn't like this was Fare's first time in a new mode.

"Are you sure we aren't going too fast?" Flare was still a little unclear on speed limits. Arcee laughed through the comm.

"Too fast? After working with the racing obsessed Override you're worried that this is too fast?"

"I guess being on the same team as her must have completely ruined my sense of speed." Flare said sarcasticly but then she laughed too. "Remember when Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were dared to challenge her to a race and they actually accepted?" Arcee started laughing again.

"She wiped the floor with those two! They must have been a solar cycle behind by the time she crossed the finish line."

"I know, poor Sunny and Sides. They didn't hear the end of it for weeks! They were so embarrassed."

"Not as embarrassed as Hotshot was after he tried singing to you and it ended up over the base comm system." Arcee mocked in a sweet voice.

"Oh Primus don't even go there! That was awful! I still don't know where he got the idea that I would like being serenaded." It was silent for a minute. "Arcee?" the blue femme's frame started to vibrate slightly. "Arcee?" Flare was getting a little worried, until she heard her friend sniggering over the comm. Suddenly it clicked into place. "It was YOU wasn't it? You told Hotshot to sing to me!" Arcee finally burst out laughing.

"Arcee! Why didn't you tell me!" Flare cried indignantly. After a minute Arcee managed to get a hold on her laughter and soothe the fuming femme.

"I didn't think I had to, I mean it wasn't entirely my fault. Hotshot came to me and asked about the sort of things you liked. I just told him that you like music, I didn't think he would go quite that far." she was still chuckling. The fiery femme vented a sigh as they continued to drive.

"Please tell me you weren't the one who put it over the comm system."

"Oh no, all the credit for that goes to Sunny and Sides. They were really pleased with themselves, it finally got everyone to forget about the Override incident, at least for a while." this time it was Flare's turn to chuckle.

"Everyone else may have forgotten about it, but Override never did. It was one of her favorite stories to tell when we had some down time on the ship."

"I forgot Override went with when you decided to join the Valkyries. Flare, what happened? I never figured you to be the kind of bot to strike out on your own like I did. How did you end up here on your own?" Flare was quiet for a few moments before she launched into an explanation.

The Valkyrie ship she'd been serving on had landed on an uninhabited planet for supplies. While they were still gathering resources a group of Decepticons found them, Flare and a few others were out scouting when it happened and got cut off from the ship. They tried to find a way to get around the Cons, but ended up in a fire fight instead. During the fight Flare got hurt and was knocked out. When she woke up the battle field was quiet, and there were several dead Cybertronians around her. She wasn't sure how long she had been out, so she got up and ran to where the ship had been. It was already gone. Flare's spark had sank at the thought of being left behind, but it made sense in a way. She'd been scouting that particular area in person because, for some reason, the ship's sensors were having trouble scanning it. The sensors probably couldn't pick up her spark signal, and her comrades had assumed she was offline. Flare went in search of shelter, but instead found a small pod hidden in some thick brush near where the ship had been. Even when under attack her companions had found a way to leave this here, on the off chance that she or another scout was still online. The navigational systems had some damage, but it was all she had to work with. Besides, the pod would have much better communication then she would on her own. She found a little bit of medical supplies inside, and was able to make a few field repairs on herself before setting out.

After a day or so of trying to follow the Valkyries her sensors picked up an Autobot ship, a small one. It turned out to be a mech named Wheeljack. She asked him about the Valkyries, but he hadn't seen them. He did tell her all about the Autobot base on Earth though, putting extra emphasis on the number of Cons he'd bashed while he was there. It turned out that Earth was a lot closer than where the Valkyries were headed. She couldn't set a course with the damage to the pod, but he was able to give her verbal directions and a little bit of extra fuel to make sure she was able to get there. It took her a while, but she eventually got to Earth and contacted them.

"I'm pretty sure you know how the story goes from there." Flare concluded.

"I'll have to mention the part about Wheeljack to Bulkhead, those two have a long history." The two fell silent for a while, but it wasn't the companionable silence one usually shares during a patrol.

"Flare, are you okay?" Arcee asked tentatively.

"I don't know, I just wish I knew how the fight ended. It wasn't just Cons that were dead on the battlefield Arcee, there were a few Valkyries too. I didn't know them very well, but they were still a part of the team. I don't even know if Override made it out okay, or if anyone else got hurt or offlined. I don't know if the ship got damaged or if they took on enough supplies to make it to the next destination. I just wish I knew..." Flare trailed off.

"I know what you mean. Sometimes it's harder not to know, you can't stop wondering if you'll see them again, and you start to wonder if you should keep your hopes up." Flare's frame sank a little as her friend's words rang true. "But I also know that the Valkyries are a tough bunch. If anyone can beat a bunch of Cons, make it out safe, and keep going afterward, it's them."

"Thanks Arcee." The orange femme said softly.

"Anything else you'd like to get off your chest? I'm thinking of starting therapy sessions so it would be great practice." Arcee tried to lighten the mood. Flare did laugh a little, but also decided to take her friend up on the offer.

"Actually, I have been wondering about how you came into contact with MECH."

"That's not exactly what I had in mind."

"If you don't want to talk about it-"

"No, it's alright. You're going to find out about this story from somebody, it might as well be me."

Arcee told her the about how Silas had used June as bait for Jack and Arcee, how Silas had almost cut her open, how Jack had almost been too late to save his Mom.

"In the end everyone made it out safe, but that blasted spider femme still got away." She finished darkly.

"Spider? You mean-"

"Airachnid is back." Arcee said no other name with such malice. Normally it was Airachnid who was called poisonous, but the way Arcee said that name made her sound like the venomous one.

"Oh scrap." Flare said in quiet shock. "Does that mean she's the one that...got Cliff?" Arcee almost skidded to a halt at the mention of her old partner, but managed to right herself and keep going.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up so abruptly." Flare silently cursed herself for not being more careful with such a touchy subject.

"How did you know?"

"I'd heard that you met up with a mech named Cliffjumper after we went our separate ways. I didn't see him anywhere on the base, so I asked Ratchet about it during one of my examinations. He didn't give me much detail, just said that he'd been offlined fighting with some Cons." There was a long silence. Flare knew better than to break it, this wasn't the kind of thing you could force. Suddenly Arcee slowed and changed direction, going off the established patrol route.

"Follow me." She instructed. Flare didn't argue.

* * *

><p>As the two femmes kept getting higher and higher Flare began to wonder where they were going, especially since this didn't seem to be an official road, but she forced her curiosity down and kept quiet. Eventually they came to the very top of a cliff, and the first thing Flare noticed was the view. She could see for miles, and the sun shinning down made the valley vibrant with reds and browns. The second thing was the pile of stones arranged at the cliff's edge. Flare knew what it must be, a memorial for Cliffjumper. Her friend had made a similar one after Tailgate's death, and had taken one of the stones with her when the team had to leave the planet.<p>

Arcee switched to bipedal mode, and stood by the memorial. Flare switched her form also, but held back, waiting to see what the blue femme would do.

"It's for Cliff." she gestured to the rocks, not looking at her friend.

"I thought so." Flare said quietly.

"I come up here sometimes, when I need to think, or just get away from everyone for a while. Sometimes I talk to him, like he can hear me. I know that's silly." She shook her head and tried for a laugh.

"I don't think it's silly. I think Cliffjumper, and all of our old comrades, that their sparks are out there somewhere. This is as good a place to talk to them as any." Arcee didn't seem to hear her.

"It shouldn't have ended this way. Starscream should never have had the chance to offline him. He had me on the comm when he was investigating that energon, I knew something was happening, something really bad. I should have gathered everyone faster, we should have been able to get there in time. We could have saved him from those Cons. Even when his signature came back online we weren't fast enough to stop him from being turned into that half alive monster. I can't stop seeing those killer optics looking out of his face when I go into recharge." Flare's spark was breaking. She couldn't stand seeing her friend like this, filled with so much pain and hatred. The worst part was that the hatred wasn't just reserved for her enemies.

"Arcee, are you saying that you think Cliffjumper's death is your fault?" Arcee finally turned to face Flare.

"I knew him! I knew that he always gets into fights where the odds are against him. I knew he would never call for backup until it was too late! I should have seen what was coming, I should have called for help right away. He's dead because of me!"

"No Arcee. He's dead because of Starscream, the Decepticons, this whole blasted war." Flare spoke forcefully.

"That doesn't make it right." She replied tersely. Flare looked at her for a moment, before sighing.

"You're right, it doesn't. But it also doesn't make it your fault." Arcee looked away from her. "'cee, obviously I didn't know Cliff like you did. But from what I've heard he was the kind of bot who really loved to live in the moment, and didn't like to worry about what could have been. Maybe the best way to honor him, is by trying to do the same." Arcee still said nothing, maybe she needed some time to think things over. Flare turned to go.

"Flare?" the fiery femme stopped and turned back around. Arcee took a step forward and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you." she whispered.

"Any time 'cee, any time." Arcee pulled back, and the two smiled at each other. They might have stayed up there longer, but Arcee suddenly noticed how much time had passed.

"Scrap, we haven't finished the patrol and I need to go pick up Jack."

"I have a map, I can finish the rest of the patrol while you go to the school." Arcee looked a little doubtful. "I'll keep the comm open and let you know if anything seems unusual, okay? Now go have some fun with your friend."

"Yes ma'am!" Arcee did a mock salute and they both transformed and sped down the cliff.

* * *

><p>That last scene was partially inspired by a certain episode of the show Stargate SG-1.<p>

Flare's vehicle mode looks a lot like Arcee's, similar mirror placements and designs. Only Flare's mode would have a lot less angles, all the plates would run together smoothly. I tried to put a link in here, but couldn't figure out how. :(


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers franchise. The only thing I own are my OC's.

* * *

><p>Bulkhead drove into the base with two teens in the seats and loud metal music wailing from his speakers. Miko was dancing in her seat and playing air guitar, her ebony pigtails bouncing with racing drumbeat. Rafael was in the back seat, since Bumblebee was busy with another scouting mission, and Jack and Arcee were out for a drive. He might have joined Miko with another air instrument, but he needed both hands protect his ears. He didn't ask them to turn it down, they seemed to be having so much fun with it, besides they were almost there.<p>

Bulkhead cut the music off when he rolled into main room, making Miko groan in disappointment. As she and Raf jumped out the car their shoes squeaked loudly on the floor. Miko frowned and looked around the control room, something seemed different. She couldn't quite tell what it was though, the only thing she saw was Ratchet. Oh well. She skipped to the stairs, enjoying how much her shoes squeaked on the floor.

"Wow, the floor is really clean." Raf noted as he followed her.

That was it! That's why the room seemed different, the floor was so shiny compared to normal. From the top of the stairs she could even see the light trail of dust Bulkhead's wheels had left.

"Alright, hold it steady now."

"Yes sir."

Miko looked up at the sound. Farther along the catwalk Rhea was lying with her arms and half of her upper body hanging off the edge. She was helping hold some metal disk thing while Ratchet did something that looked sciency. Since science equaled boring, Miko went over and sat on the couch.

"Bulkhead! You up for game?" She called, waving the controller over her head.

"You bet!" Bulkhead said as he transformed. Miko grinned, then turned to her smaller friend.

"How about you Raf? I know you can't resist a good game."

"Thanks Miko, but I promised that I'd help Ratchet work out some of the bugs in the computer system." He walked off with his laptop. Miko sighed. _'Ugh, more science stuff. Oh well, their loss. Bulkhead and me will have a duel!' _She tossed her guardian a control.

"Come on Bulk, Let me show ya how it's done!"

...

Raf plugged in his laptop and started to prepare a debugging program, doing his best to concentrate with the background noise of Miko's distant boasting and Ratchet's repairs.

"And...finished!" Ratchet proclaimed. Rhea let out a relieved sigh and sat up.

"So what's next?" The girl asked.

"Just to put the tools away. I'll take these back to storage."

"Can I help?"

"Most of these will be too heavy for you. Besides I can take them in one trip. You can take a break." Rhea nodded to him as he packed away the tools and left the room.

As Raf typed he began to feel like someone was watching him. He turned his head around to see Rhea sitting on the catwalk, staring at him curiously. No, it wasn't him she was staring at, it was the computer screen. When she noticed him looking at her she quickly turned away, and muttered an apology.

"Where did Ratchet go?" he questioned her.

"He went to put some tools away." she said, wringing her hands as she spoke. She hadn't interacted with Raf or the other children very much since arriving. There hadn't been any other people her age back at MECH, so she wasn't sure how to talk to them.

"So, you know some stuff about computers, right?" He asked after a minute of thought

"I was training to be a part of the tech crew before I left, so I know some stuff."

"You wanna help me out with this program then?"

"Well, I guess I would, I mean, so long as you're okay with it." Her words were doubtful, but Raf could tell she was interested.

"Sure, come on over." Raf said with smile. Rhea carefully stood up and took the seat next to Raf. The boy started to explain how Ratchet was having some trouble integrating human and cybertronian technology, and how he needed help with some of the bugs that kept popping up. The girl nodded, taking in all the information, then started to ask her own questions about it. It turns out she knew exactly what he was talking about. Before long the two were having a friendly discussion about the pros and cons of different programming options, computer models and operating systems.

"When did you get this laptop? It doesn't look like any of the recent ones, it has some character to it." Rhea ran her fingertip along a few scrapes at the the edge of the keyboard.

"It's been in the family for a couple of years now, so it's definitely old in the technology world. I have a newer one, but I'm still doing some repairs on it."

"Why did it need to be repaired?"

"Well, it actually happened when we first met MECH. I did some hacking to change the direction of the train they were chasing, and when they found out they sort of fried my computer."

"Oh...sorry about that." Rhea suddenly felt very awkward.

"It's okay, really." Raf rushed to assure her. "It looked a lot worse than it actually was, besides I was looking for a reason to give it a few upgrades."

"Well, I could help with that if you brought it to the base sometime."

"That would great." Raf gave her a big smile, and she returned it. Then they turned their attention back the computer. Rhea leaned over the desk to get a better look at the screen. She opened her mouth to make another suggestion, but all that came out was a hiss. She suddenly drew back, and pressed her hand to her side.

"You okay?" Raf asked, giving her a worried look.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just shouldn't have leaned at that angle." She said in her tight voice.

"Maybe you should ask Ratchet about it." The brown haired boy suggested, but Rhea shook her head. Ratchet was the chief medical officer, he wouldn't want to be bothered with such trivial matters. Well, technically he was the only medical officer, but that still made him the head doctor. Besides, June would probably visit soon anyway.

At that moment Ratchet happened to get back from the supply room. He took in Raf's concerned expression and Rhea's pained posture.

"Something wrong?" he asked, already knowing what the answer would probably be.

"No, I just need to be more careful in the future." Rhea said, she took her hand away from her side and tried to look casual, but she still seemed stiff.

"When she leaned over the desk it hurt her." Raf clarified. Ratchet nodded, it made sense. With all the work she'd been doing today it probably but some strain on her burn.

"I suppose I could help with that." He offered his hand to Rhea.

"I don't want to be any trouble." she protested.

"Rhea, Ms. Darby has a longer shift at the hospital today, so she probably won't be visiting. Besides, this will be good practice for me." Since Rhea had come in such a condition it made him realize how he only knew the basics of human medicine. Perhaps he should look into that.

"Well, if you insist." She climbed into his hand, and he started for the medical bay. Before he went out the door he paused, putting a hand to his helm. Then he called over his shoulder.

"Bulkhead, I just got word from Optimus that he and Bumblebee are back. They found signs of an energon source and need some help unloading samples from the area."

"I'm on it Doc bot." He gave the medic a thumbs up. Ratchet nodded and continued to the med bay.

"Awwww, but the game was just getting good." Miko complained.

"Sorry, Miko. We can finish it up later." The green bot cast a suspicious look toward Rhea as he lumbered off. Part of him still didn't feel good about having her here, and letting his charge interact with her. She hadn't done anything bad so far, but she could be waiting for the right time like Makeshift. He was just glad that they always made sure another bot was with her.

Miko sighed as her guardian left, she'd been winning that fight too. So what was she supposed to do now? Raf was still busy with his laptop, she lost her video game partner, and playing guitar wasn't as fun unless you had an audience or other band members. She lay down on the couch, letting her mind wander. She thought about how Rhea had been helping Ratchet when they first came in. It was weird, Ratchet is so touchy about his projects.

She still hadn't gotten a chance to talk to the girl, it seemed like every time she tried the girl was too busy talking to Flare or Bulkhead suddenly thought of something for them to do together. But suddenly she felt sorry for the new arrival. The girl had all those extra rules to deal with, and now she was helping Ratchet work. If things went on like this that kid's life would turn into nothing but rules and work. She hardly knew the kid, but she couldn't let that happen to her, it would be cruel! Miko decided that Rhea needed to have some fun introduced into her life, and that she herself would be the girl to introduce it. From what Miko had seen the girl was painfully shy, so she would need an outgoing spirit to break through that. By the time Ratchet walked back into the room with Rhea, the pigtailed girl had a plan in mind.

Ratchet placed Rhea at the top of the stairs and then went over to Raf to get the debugging started. The honey blond girl took a quick look at her side. The medic had done very well applying the new bandages, even though he said he needed practice. She took a few steps toward where Raf and Ratchet were working, when she felt something latch onto her arm.

"Hi Rhea!" Miko greeted her brightly.

"Uh, hi Miko." Rhea stammered, taken aback at the sudden invasion of personal space.

"You know what? I'm willing to bet that you've been working with Ratchet all day. You deserve a break!" the exchange student started dragging her back to the stairs. Rhea looked over her shoulder, Raf had seen the whole thing. She gave him a look that asked _'Should I be worried?'. _Raf just shrugged. She sighed and let herself be dragged down the stairs by a very determined Miko. She had just enough time to call out to Ratchet that she would be with Miko if he needed her, before she was pulled out of the main room.

...

As they made their way through the halls Miko bombarded Rhea with questions ranging from her life at MECH to what kind of foods she liked, but she never left room for an answer.

"And here we are!" the raven haired girl announced as she swung a door open and pulled Rhea inside.

"So, where are we?" Rhea asked, looking at the speakers, sheet music and other random musical equipment that was scattered on the floor. The room didn't have much in it, but it was so small it felt cramped.

"This is where Ratchet makes me go when he's doing _important_ stuff and can't be distracted by my 'noise'." Miko sounded a little bitter, but then brightened up. "But that's not the big question. The big question is: What kind of music do you like and can you play and instrument?"

"That's two questions."

"Whatever." Miko rolled her eyes. "Just answer one of them."

"Well, I had a few piano lessons when I was younger."

"Keyboard, perfect! Better than Jack playing the harmonica anyway." Miko shook her head. Jack was still trying to convince her that a flimsy little thing like a harmonica was just as good an instrument as her awesome guitar.

"Jack plays the harmonica? That's pretty cool, I've always wanted to learn." Miko stared at her in disbelief. "What?"

"Nothing, let's see if we can find the keyboard. I know I have one somewhere in here." After a few minutes of rummaging they found a small electric keyboard and stand.

"You didn't tell me your favorite music." Miko said as they got the keyboard plugged in and she grabbed her guitar.

"I guess I don't really have a favorite."

"Seriously? Your a teenage girl, you have to like some kind of music. How old are you anyway?"

"I'm 13." The strawberry blonde paused, frowning. "Or, maybe I'm 14 by now." Miko raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know how old you are? Can't you just count the number of parties you've had or something?"

"No. I haven't had a birthday party since I became an official member of MECH. It's the sort of place that celebrates success and great accomplishments, being born doesn't count. So I sometimes it's hard to remember when my birthday is." Miko gave her another disbelieving look. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"You poor thing! I had no idea you missed out on so much! As soon as you remember how old you are and when your birthday is we are having a party, a big one to make up for the ones you missed. Okay? Good! Now lets make some music!"

This time it was Rhea's turn to look bewildered.

"You ready?" Miko jumped up on one of the speakers.

"Huh?"

"KICK IT!" Miko shouted and slammed the strings with her pic. Rhea yelped and immediately covered her ears. Miko always had it cranked up pretty loud, but the small room made the sound deafening. After a minute she stopped her solo and turned to Rhea. "I couldn't hear your keyboard."

_'I'm surprised she can still hear anything.'_ Rhea thought as she slowly took her hands away from her ears. Aloud she said "I'm sorry, I wasn't prepared. I'm also not familiar with...whatever that was."

"What kind of music are you familiar with then?"

Rhea positioned herself behind the keyboard. She tested the keyboard out with a few scales, and then started to play Beethoven's _Fur Elise_. As she played she closed her eyes and her lips curved slightly upward. When she hit a string of sour notes she grimaced and stopped playing.

"It's been a while since I practiced, but that's the sort of music I learned to play with."

"Um, that was nice." Miko replied. _'The fun plan is definitely not going to work, not with stuffy music like that anyway. Time for plan B.'_ "You know what? I'm tired of music, let's do something else." Once again she grabbed Rhea's arm and dragged her out of the room.

...

"Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"Of course I'm sure, exercise is important you know."Miko said as she tried to keep a basketball balanced on the tip of her finger.

"No, I mean are you sure it's okay to do this **here**." Rhea looked around the supply room nervously. The walls were lined with giant shelves, most of which had bot sized tools and replacement parts. A few had what appeared to be raw minerals.

"Ugh, you're worse than Ratchet! Look, the Doc bot always kicks me out when I try to play in the main room, and this is the only other room that's big enough. Besides, there's no rule about not playing in here." Though that was mostly because she'd never been caught in here before.

"Well, if you say so." Rhea bit her lip, still looking doubtful.

"Great! Now, your hoop is over there," the black haired girl pointed to a orange metal hoop near the door. "And my hoop is over there." She pointed to a hoop on the other side of the room between two sets of shelves. "All we have to do is try and get the ball into each other's hoop, and keep the ball out of our own hoop. We'll play until one person gets 5 baskets. Oh and you have to keep dribbling the ball. Got all that?"

"Yes. Are there any other rules?"

"Not in my game there aren't!" Miko said with a mischievous grin. "Ready, Set, Go!" Miko grabbed the ball and took off toward the door.

"What? Wait!" Rhea bolted after her.

Miko reached the door and tossed the ball. It hit the wall right next to the hoop and bounced away. Rhea quickly dashed in, snatched the ball, turned heel and ran. Miko chased after her. They caught up to each other in the middle of the room, and Miko kicked the ball out of the other girl's hands. The blonde girl squeaked in surprise as the ball went shooting off to the side. Miko ran past her, throwing her a wide grin as she reclaimed the ball.

"No other rules, remember? You have to get more creative." Miko ran for the door again with Rhea, who was now much more prepared, hot on her trail. Over the next few minutes the two girls kicked, swatted, rolled and did any number of actions that would have gotten a foul in real Basketball. At one point Miko even tackled Rhea.

Finally, they each made four successful baskets; whoever made the next point would win the game. Rhea managed to get the ball, and put everything she had into running so Miko couldn't get close enough to steal it again. She was getting close to Miko's hoop, she was almost there. She braced herself, took a shot, and missed the hoop by a long shot. Instead the ball slammed against one of the metal shelves lining the wall. A small clank was heard.

"Uh oh." Rhea flinched at the sound. "Is that bad?"

"Nah, you probably just knocked over spare bolt or something." Miko shrugged. Just as she finished her sentence another clank was heard, then another, a little louder this time, followed by the sound of something rolling. At the other end of the shelf the rolling sound stopped with another clank, and a large double pronged tool slipped off the edge. The moment it hit the floor it broke apart. There was dead silence as the two girls stared at the tool.

"Oh scrap." Miko whispered.

"Miko! Rhea! I needed that!" The two girls jumped and whirled around to see Ratchet standing at the door. Miko looked from the tool to the angry medic, trying to think of some way to avoid blame for this. Rhea took another approach. She ran forward, bowed at the waist, and kept her eyes on the floor.

"Sir, I am fully responsible for what has happened. I will make up for it to the best of my ability, and will accept any punishment you may wish to impose upon me." Her voice was humble and full of regret. But at the same time the words sounded rehearsed, like she had said them many times before. Ratchet was a little taken aback. He'd never received such an apology from any of the children before.

"Well, just make sure to be more careful around around the equipment, and don't come in here unless you have permission. Understand?"

"Yes sir." The blonde didn't move.

"Um, you're dismissed."

"Thank you, sir." She kept her eyes on the ground as she quickly walked out, her reddish braid swaying as she went. Ratchet watched her go, and then turned to Miko, who laughed sheepishly.

"She's right, that thing falling was definitely because of the ball **she** threw." Giving him her best innocent eyes. Ratchet gave her a flat stare in return. Miko sighed. "Alright, what's it going to be? The mop?" The CMO thought for a moment.

"No, I think you should find Rhea and make sure she's alright. Her reaction seemed strange." Miko's eyebrow's shot up.

"Seriously? That's it?"

"Do you want to mop the med bay?"

"Okay I'm going!" Miko ran out of the supply room.

...

Miko checked Rhea's bedroom, the main room, the med bay, and everywhere else that she thought Rhea might go, but there was no sign of her. She was just about to give up the search and make up some story to Ratchet about talking to her, when she heard music. She followed the faint sound through the hallways, and found herself back at the spare practice room she'd shown off earlier. Through a small window in the human sized door the exchange student could see Rhea standing at the electric keyboard, just about to start a new song. She toyed with some of the dials and switches, and a customized drumbeat started. The beat was strange, but rather catchy. She played a few notes of intro and then, to Miko's surprise, started to sing. Her voice was soprano, but it wasn't exactly pretty. It didn't have the bell like quality that many sopranos developed; her voice had a darker, more rounded tone to it.

_What if I squeeze myself into any shape, and I still don't fit?_

_What if I bend myself so much that I break, and I can't mend it?_

_What if I burn so bright that the fire goes out, and I can't stay lit? _

_What's the point in it?_

_I could get good at crying crocodile tears, just to get along. _

_I could carry on telling you what you want to hear, till my voice is gone._

_But if I finally get to the place that I think is home, and I don't belong, _

_What's the point in it? _

_Where's the benefit? _

_When I'm gaining all but I'm losing it?_

_It's not worth having, if it's too much to hold._

_You can dig so deep that you're left with a hole. _

_Thirsty in a desert with a bag full of gold. _

_Don't wanna end up like pirate bones, _

_what I thought was precious just a pile o' stones._

_I might have the treasure but I'd be lying alone,_

_just a pile o pirate bones._

_If I forfeit my soul it ain't worth havin'. _

_If it's something I stole it ain't worth havin'. _

_What if I stake everything I am on a dream, and it's counterfeit?_

_If I reach the end that justifies the means, could I live with it?_

_And if it's true that having too much of any good thing, can only make me sick, _

_What's the point in it? _

_Where's the benefit? _

_When I'm gaining all but I'm losing it?_

The song faded away and the room went silent. Miko braced herself, she might as well get this over with. She opened the door and strolled in.

"I thought you didn't like 'modern' music."

"I never said that, you just assumed it. Just because I can play classical and don't have a favorite band doesn't mean that I don't like more recent music." She kept her gaze on the keyboard as she spoke. "I've been wanting to try playing that song for a while now. I loved it as soon as I heard it, and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I figured I might as well try it now, since the next place might not even have a keyboard or piano."

"Next place?" Miko tilted her head and frowned in confusion. "What do mean 'next place'?"

"I did something bad. I broke something important. That means I'll be punished for it eventually, and then moved. They won't want someone around who breaks things all the time." Rhea murmured. How could she have allowed this to happen? She had meant this to be a new start, her chance to be something more than a push over and a coward. And how had she used that chance? By letting herself be pushed around and being too uncertain to break off on her own, just the sort of thing that would happen back at MECH. Rhea felt disgusted with herself. She'd managed to lose her new equilibrium, and the one person she felt she could truly trust, in one fell swoop. So she was more than a little surprised when she heard Miko start to giggle. The giggles soon turned into squeals of laughter.

"What's so funny?" The blonde asked, almost angrily.

"You are!" Miko managed to get out between her laughter. "You break one of the Doc bot's tools and you think their going to kick you out, now that's rich!" Rhea started at her, still not getting why that was so hilarious. Miko finally managed to pull herself together, and look Rhea in the eye.

"Look kid, I don't know a whole lot of stuff, but one thing I do know is that the bots are not going to get rid of you just because you mess up sometimes. I do stupid stuff all the time and I'm still around, the bots are really great about that kind of stuff you know."

"You're sure?"

"Of course!"

"...you said the same thing about the basketball."

"Well this time I mean it. Besides, that apology you gave is way more than he's ever gotten out of me. You should have seen the look on his face, he looked at you like you'd suddenly sprouted wings and a halo!"

Rhea giggled, her mother had sometimes called her a little angel. She felt relief rush through her. This wasn't the end of her time here, she wasn't going to be forced out or taken away and lose her only friend. She looked at Miko's smiling face, and thought about how nice Raf had been to her, and how well she had gotten along with Ratchet this morning. Maybe Flare didn't have to be her only friend.

"You know, we could probably fit in one more fun thing before Ratchet gets you to start working again." Miko pointed out once all the giggling had died down.

"Miko, would you believe that I actually like doing repairs and working with my hands?" Miko started laughing again, and complimented Rhea on how funny she was. Rhea rolled her eyes.

"What did you have in mind for the rest of the break then?" Miko flopped onto the ground and used a speaker as a back rest.

"Eh, I've been thinking up stuff all afternoon. You think of something to do." Rhea thought for a few minutes, there was something else she'd been wanting to try since coming here.

"I have an idea. It was something that I heard the younger soldiers talking about back at my old base. They could get really excited about it, and it sounded fun, but I never got a chance to try it myself."

"And what would that be?" Miko coaxed.

"Video games." The Asian girl's eyes lit up. Maybe there was some hope for this girl after all.

"I think I can help you with that."

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading the new chapter! I hope it was worth the wait.<p>

The song Rhea sings is called "Pirate Bones" by Natasha Bedingfield. Only part of it is featured here, and I encourage to to look up the whole song.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

* * *

><p>Miko started her out with a classic racing game, and since then Rhea was hooked. She'd jump at the chance to play anything, except first person shooter games. She took an instant dislike to them when Miko brought in a borrowed copy of the latest Call of Duty game.<p>

For one thing, virtual reality did nothing to improve her aim. When Miko finally convinced Rhea to play a level she was barely able to hit anything, even when she picked up the most accurate and easy to use weapon. It got to the point where Miko, who normally would have been reveling in her victory, found it a little disappointing. What was the point of winning if there wasn't any challenge? Eventually the raven haired girl asked Rhea how she managed to hit anyone while she and Flare were escaping from MECH. The blonde pointed out that she had been shooting into a large crowd of soldiers and vehicles, so she was bound to hit something.

That was another reason Rhea hated the shooter games, and others like them. She hated being reminded of her and Flare's fight with MECH. She didn't want to think about how many people she knew that had been on the receiving end of those blasts. Everyone here knew of MECH soldiers only by their characteristic goggles and concealing masks, but Rhea could connect faces and names to many of them. Levi, Jawson, Shea, Hadley, and others, their faces visited her in her sleep, as did her father. When she thought of him, angry, betrayed, and disappointed in her, it felt like a fist was squeezing her heart.

She never told anyone though, not even Flare. The kind femme had her own worries, and shouldn't be burdened with Rhea's. Plus, she was afraid that if she started to express regret for what had happened the rest of the bots might get suspicious all over again.

With the gateway of gaming, Rhea had became a regular part of the kids after school activities. This was one of the few times that the young girl didn't seem overly pensive or nervous, and she even relaxed her perfect posture. Ratchet grumbled a little, saying that the kids were going to ruin Rhea's good work ethic. Even though she would immediately drop her controller if Ratchet needed anything, which was a pretty annoying when they were in the middle of a multi-player game.

Both the new human and the new bot were gradually becoming an accepted presence on the base. Rhea's new found love of video games gave her a way to casually connect with the other kids, and she'd even played a few games with Bumblebee. Ratchet actually didn't mind having her around since she was always so respectful and helpful, and like Raf she quickly learned all of his rules. Arcee had warmed up to her a bit too, though that was mostly because of her connection to Flare.

Flare was starting to find her own place as well. She was naturally accepted by Arcee, and the two of them could often be found chatting, laughing and training together. Flare finally got some space now that Rhea and the other kids were becoming more comfortable with each other, but the girl still hung out with Flare and liked listening to her stories. Ratchet treated the flame colored femme the same way he treated everyone, but she had a bit more patience for his gruffness then some bots. Flare also found herself getting along very well with Bumblebee, his optimism and sparkling like attitude fitting well with her own warm and comforting pressence. They shared a similar sort of wonder about life and it's little miracles, which was hard to find in many bots these days. With both Flare and Bee around the whole base seemed a lot brighter.

The only one Flare really wasn't sure what to make of was Bulkhead. The first few days the two of them really hadn't gotten along. Bulkhead didn't hide his suspicions about Rhea, or his opinion that Flare had been foolish to place such trust on her. This made Flare abnormally defensive of both her own decision and her charge. At least the others were trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. When he found out about how Miko had spent almost the whole afternoon alone with Rhea he was angry and told Flare to keep a better eye on her charge. _Bulkhead_ of all bots was telling her to keep better track of her charge. Flare tried to keep Bulkhead, and herself, calm but eventually she had enough.

"Bulkhead, I understand that you're worried about Miko's safety and the base, but this is ridiculous! She's a child not a criminal! Besides, if we watch her every minute of the day how is she supposed to show that she can be trusted?" Flare demanded of the hulking green mech.

"How do you know she's not a criminal? She never talks about MECH, or tries to help us with them, so what is she hiding?" That brought the femme up short for a moment. She'd wondered about Rhea's past too, but the girl usually changed the subject if things were about to head in the direction of MECH or her family. Even though Flare was patient and shared some of her own history with her charge the girl was still having a hard time opening up.

"It's hard to leave everything you know for a new place and new people, she's still adjusting to it. She'll talk about them when she's ready." Flare was resolute.

"How do you **know**?" Bulkhead sounded exasperated "How do you know she's not using her little bit of freedom to map out the base so she can tell Silas all about it later? Or using her time with Ratchet to learn about our tech and find a way to contact her old friends?"

"I don't." Bulkhead stared at her, surprised she had admitted to that.

"Then why do you defend her so much?"

"Well, first of all, she's my charge. It comes with the territory. And more importantly, Rhea needs someone who trusts her right now, someone she can talk to. Besides, no matter who you decide to trust there's a good chance they'll end up hurting you. That's just what happens when you let someone get that close. I'd rather leave that door open, and deal with the good and the bad that comes through it, than keep it closed and get neither." The green bot couldn't think of anything to say.

Bulkhead's behavior began to change after that. It was clear that he still didn't like Rhea very much or trust her fully, but he eventually stopped sending her suspicious looks and didn't protest when Miko or any other kids wanted to hang out with her. Flare was pleased with his change of attitude toward her charge, but was confused by his change of attitude toward herself. She noticed that he seemed to start boasting more whenever he noticed her enter the room, or would sometimes become tongue tied when she joined a conversation he was having. She mentioned it to Arcee, but her friend just shrugged it off and said that Bulk had always been better with his cannons that with words. Flare couldn't help thinking it was more than that though.

LTHB

Bulkhead stood firm, his large pedes spread apart. His thick arms vibrated with the hum of his cannons, the air throbbed with energy blasts, and targets were blown to pieces. He'd missed this, it had been way to quiet recently. Target boards moved randomly in front of him, zig zagging, swooping, and rocketing up suddenly. Bulkhead grinned as he stepped forward to blast another target, it flew apart in a dozen black and white pieces. When they'd first moved into the base the shooting range mostly had stationary targets with only a few that would move back and forth or side to side at regular intervals. That might have been enough for human fighters and weapons, but bots like him needed something a bit more life like. The Doc had done a good job with the new movement system, but it wasn't as good as fighting a real Con. Nothing could compare a real battle, the heat, the chaos, the danger, the rush of taking down the bad guys and coming out on top. That's why he could never stay mad at Miko for sneaking through the ground bridge to watch them fight. She needed to learn to take it more seriously of course, but he couldn't blame her for wanting to be a part of that. Sometimes he thought that his charge had been born into the wrong species, if she were Cybertronian she could have made a scrapping good Wrecker.

The sound of the door opening distracted him, and made him miss a speeding target. He almost missed another when he quickly glanced to see who it was, he was a little surprised that it was Flare. He'd never seen her in target practice before. Come to think of it he'd only seen her in a real fight when they rescued her; which meant that she'd never really seen him in action either. The mech smiled to himself and increased power to his cannons, might as well give her a good first look.

He started to put more effort into his shots, making sure every one that he hit was either blown apart of struck down for good. He even let himself get a little flashy, doing over the shoulder shots and other tricks. Finally the targets stopped moving, the session was over. The green mech surveyed his work, and was pleased with himself. He'd missed several, but all the others clearly showed how much damage he could do. He turned to Flare, smirking in self approval at how impressed she looked.

"Hey Flare, haven't seen you in here before." He said casually.

"Yeah, Arcee and I usually like to train with close combat. I was supposed to meet her here, she must have gotten caught up with something."

"Well, I'm all done for now. I'll reset it so you can start." the mech lumbered over to a control panel on the wall. One of the new features the Doc bot had installed was difficulty levels, so you could choose between serious and casual practice. Bulkhead himself always trained at the highest levels, so he set it down a few for Flare. He'd seen her and Arcee sparring a few times, and he wasn't really impressed with the new bot. Arcee was amazingly adept with her kicks and blades, and by comparison Flare was uncertain and awkward. The fiery femme was quick like Arcee, but didn't have as much combat instinct. She was taken off guard by the blue bot almost every time. It was no wonder they trained in close combat so much, Flare needed it.

"I'd kind of like to choose the level myself." Flare interupted his thoughts. "I've been in here on my own a couple times, I know how the levels work." Bulkhead shrugged and stood back. Flare reached up for the panel, to his surprise she ended up picking the level he had just been training on. She moved to the center of the room, and took a fighting stance. Her visor whirred and clicked into place over her right optic, a great compliment to her focused expression. Bulkhead relaxed against the back wall to watch, and was amazed by the change that overtook the flame colored femme. As the targets appeared she on-lined her small blasters and swept the room with energon blasts. Every move was smooth and filled with purpose. When she needed a new angle she swiftly spun to a new location. Bulkhead had never noticed how graceful she could be. By the time all the targets stopped moving she was venting air heavier than normal, but her work had certainly paid off. She hadn't destroyed the targets like he did, but she had gotten a bull's eye on each of them.

"Whoa...that was, you were...uh..nice shooting." the green bot stumbled over the compliment. He received a shy smile in return.

"Thanks. I have my good friend to thank for it." She tapped her visor with one thin finger. "I was installed with a more advanced targeting system early on in the war, it got me into the position of sniper on most teams. It's a good thing I got it too, if I had to go servo to servo with all of the Cons we ran across I'd probably have gone offline pretty early." she looked down at the floor, and nudged a wrecked target with her pede. "You did a pretty good job yourself, I've never seen this much debris in a training room before. It's nice to know we've got such a power house on the team."

"Thanks." He said, looking away modestly. "Say, Flare, I know some stuff about close combat. It might help if you trained with someone beside Arcee now and then, so maybe you'd like to, uh, spar with me some time?" Flare nodded in approval, smiling warmly.

"I'd like that, it could help a lot."

"What could help a lot?" The two turned toward the door as Arcee strolled in. Bulkhead looked a little embarrassed, but Flare just smiled at her friend.

"Bulkhead was just saying that it might help with my training if I fought with different bots, so he's volunteered to help with that."

"Really? Well, he has a good point. You'll need to deal with a variety of fighting styles. I'll try and mention it to Bumblebee the next time I see him."

The three bots chatted for a little longer. Arcee got roped into helping Ratchet with a chore, along with Bumblebee, but she hurried over as soon as she could. They were just figuring out the target settings for the next round, when the sound of small pounding feet came form the hallway. The door was open slightly, and when the three bots turned around they saw two human shaped blurs rush past the door. Before they had a chance to wonder what that was about the two blurs came back, dissolving into Jack and Rhea as they stood panting in the doorway.

"We need a place to hide." Jack finally managed to get out.

"From what? What's wrong?" Arcee was instantly alert, looking for danger.

"From Miko." Rhea clarified, trying to catch her breath. The bots all gave them a confused look. When they heard another set of running feet in the distance the two humans gave each other a worried look.

"No time to explain. If Miko asks about us tell her we kept going down the hall." Jack said in a rush. The two humans humans ran in and dove behind the feet of their respective guardians. A few moments later a very peeved Miko appeared at the door.

"Are Jack and Rhea here?" she demanded.

"Uh, I think they passed by here a minute ago." Flare responded, gesturing to the direction the kids had originally been heading. Miko nodded and took off. A pair of relieved sighs came from near the Autobot's feet as her footsteps faded.

"Alright, what did you do?" Arcee gave the hiding humans a skeptical look.

"Hey this isn't all our fault!" Jack said defensively.

"We all decided that it became necessary." Rhea nodded in agreement.

"What became necessary?" Bulkhead questioned, a little suspicious himself.

"Maybe we should have them start at the beginning." Flare intervened. All three bots looked at them expectantly. Jack scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"Well, I guess it started while we were doing homework earlier today."

_(flash back)_

Jack flipped through pages of brightly colored ocean animals swimming through turquoise water, trying to decide which ocean animal to do a report on for his Biology class. Raf, who was speeding through his math homework, was sitting next to him in the middle of the couch, and Miko was on the other end. She was staring at her history book lying open on her lap, whether or not she was actually reading it was questionable. Rhea was there too, sitting on the floor with her back against the end of the couch and looking through some of Jack's text books. He let the blonde borrow them whenever she came to their homework sessions. One of the few things she'd been willing to share about her past was that she had been home schooled, so she was curious to see if an actual school would have taught her anything different. Jack had been amused when she said that there didn't seem to be much of a difference between the two. He told her that it wasn't the books that made going to school different.

Jack paused on a page depicting a nautilus, this one might work well for his project. He took in it's curved shell and the ninety little tentacles surrounding it's mouth, and smiled a little. With all the crazy sci fi stuff that happened around here it was strangely comforting to be reminded that there was plenty of weird things right on planet Earth.

"Do we get a study break yet?" Miko asked hopefully.

"We haven't been working that long, have we?" Raf looked up from his equations. Jack checked the time on his phone.

"Well, it has been a little over an hour since we started. We could stretch our legs at least."

"Great!" Miko slammed the book shut and hopped off the couch. "I have a perfect idea for what we can do."

"Miko, we already agreed we'd save the video game tournament until after our homework is done." Jack pointed out. Miko shook her head, making her pigtails bob.

"Not that, I think we should try cooking!" Her excited explanation only got her confused looks from the boys. "Didn't Rhea tell you? She found a kitchen in one of the back areas of the base yesterday." Rhea nodded as she put down Jack's world history book.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Raf wondered. Rhea gave a small shrug.

"It didn't seem that important. I only told Miko because she asked me what I'd been up to the day I found it. The water runs, but the refrigerator and freezer aren't on. I also found several cooking tools that had been left behind, which really makes me worried about your government's organizational abilities."

"Talk, talk, talk." Miko rolled her eyes. "Let's get started already. I brought in a bunch of food from home and put it in our snack fridge, we can use that for ingredients."

Jack wasn't sure at first, since he wasn't sure if any of them knew much about preparing food. But he had prepared a few meals for himself when his Mom had to work late, and Rhea admitted that she'd done her fair share of kitchen duty at MECH, so he let himself be talked into it. Besides, it was one of the few times he'd seen Miko excited to learn about something other than battles or explosions. So a few minutes later the kids found themselves sorting through a pile of ingredients trying to think of what they could make.

The kitchen wasn't much to look at, being built for efficiency rather than looks. It was basically a scaled down version of a typical cafeteria style kitchen. Lining the walls there was an oven and stove, a large sink, some cupboards, a dish sanitizer, and doors leading to the pantry, supply closet, refrigerator and freezer, all made of stainless steel. In the middle of the brown tiled floor was a long metal table, which the random bags of food currently rested on.

Jack decided that it would be best to leave the stone alone since it was their first try, so he convinced everyone to help make a fruit dessert that his Mom made for special occasions. His mom kept sending fruits and vegetables with him to base, trying to get the kids to eat more healthy food, so they had plenty of that. Miko had managed to pilfer enough sugar and other random ingredients to make up the rest of what they would need. Once that was decided they moved all the extra food and ingredients they wouldn't need into the empty pantry, so they would have enough room to work. To Jack's surprise things went pretty well, for a while.

Raf was assigned the task of mixing the ingredients together in a large bowl, while the older kids worked on cleaning and chopping the fruit. After a little minute Rhea sighed and stopped chopping the apple, the knife she'd chosen had too short a handle and it was making her hand cramp.

"Hey Miko? Could you get me a different knife from that cupboard next to the pantry, please?"

"Sure." Miko replied happily, bouncing off to the cupboard. A moment later Rhea heard her say "Here it is!" Rhea turned around to accept it.

"Thanks, M- GAH!" the blonde yelled in surprise and jumped away, her back hitting the table. The way Miko was holding the knife the blade was pointing right at Rhea, and she had almost run into it when she turned around. When her back hit the table the jerk made Raf slip off the stool he was perched on, taking the mixing bowl with him.

"You okay Raf?" Jack asked, helping him up. Thankfully the bowl had dumped it's contents on the floor rather than the boy.

"Yeah, I'm okay." he brushed himself off, looking a little embarrassed "Sorry about the mess."

"No problem, it should be pretty easy to clean up." Jack looked up from the smaller boy the the two girls. "And Miko, holding the knife with the blade pointing down is usually a pretty good way to avoid accidentally stabbing people."

"Yes Mom." Miko playfully rolled her eyes, and put the knife on the table. "I'll make it up to you by getting the towel." She strolled into the nearby supply closet. Jack looked at the semi-solid mess on the floor, a mop might work better. As Rhea cleaned up the table he went over to the closet to look for one. Just as he was about to enter, Miko came out. The door slammed into Jack and sent him sprawling. Miko looked down at him.

"You really should watch where you're going." she quipped.

"I'll do that." Jack said in good humored sarcasm.

Those first few accidents were quickly forgiven, unfortunately that wasn't the end of it. Over the next twenty minutes there were an array of mishaps and near accidents, most of them caused by Miko. Rhea started to hint that this was starting to take a while and it might be better if they finished later, but Miko insisted that they were close enough to being done that they might as well finish now. Just after this was decided Miko accidentally spilled a cup of boiling water onto Rhea's arm, making her yell in pain. As Jack checked the damage he and Rhea exchanged a few words, and came to a decision.

"Miko, could you find Ratchet and ask for a first aid kit?" Jack asked "Rhea has a light burn on her arm, the kit should have something for it." Miko agreed, and ran out the door. The Asian girl was starting to feel a little bad about all the accidents, but she was sure the others wouldn't get too mad at her. Besides, she figured it was kind of better this way. When things go perfectly they get boring. Miko found Ratchet in the main control room.

"Hey Doc!" She called up. "You got a human first aid kit lying around?"

"Is one of you hurt? Do you need help?" He asked, gruffness disappearing in his concern.

"It's nothing too bad, we were just messing around in the kitchen and things got a little out of hand. So you got one?" The medic frowned.

"Well, yes. But I already gave Rhea a medical kit to put in the kitchen." He shook his helm, then dug out kit from a cupboard near the ground. "Maybe it was moved. You can take this one to them."

"Thanks Doc bot!" Miko called and bounded back to the kitchen. She reached to kitchen door, but when she turned the handle the door wouldn't budge.

"Guys! I got the kit!" She called through the door. There was no answer. She called again, but still nothing. She tried the door again, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Then she finally figured it out, it was locked from the inside. Suddenly everything clicked, all the accidents, sending her for a first aid kit they were supposed to already have- they had locked her out!

"No Fair!" Miko shouted through the door angrily.

(_end of flash back_)

"When we finally finished we came out, but Miko was waiting for us. She started yelling again and started chasing us, and well, you know how it goes from there. Don't know why she let Raf off the hook so easily, maybe because he was holding the dessert." Jack finished awkwardly. Everyone was quiet for a minute.

"Okay, the first thing we're going to do is confiscate those knives you were talking about." Arcee spoke up.

"And then I think you all need to get together and apologize to each other." Flare said sagely.

"We didn't mean to hurt her feelings, and we tried to say sorry for locking her out but she was too busy yelling at us." Rhea looked down sadly. She felt a little guilty. She had growing to like Miko, with her lighthearted attitude and randomness, but when it came to kitchens that girl was a menace!

"Give her some time to cool down, she'll be a lot easier to talk to then." Bulkhead advised. He wasn't really upset that the kids had put his charge on the rampage. He knew the kind of temper she had, her anger would fizzle out quickly once she had burned through it. But it turns out Miko wasn't ready to cool down just yet.

"There you are, you traitors!" The kids spun around to see Miko fuming in the doorway. The chase began once again, Jack and Rhea fled into the field of destroyed targets with Miko in hot pursuit. "How dare you lock me out! The whole thing was my idea in the first place!" She yelled as she ran. Jack tried to get her to calm down and Rhea kept up a string of constant apologies, while the bots looked on in mild amusement.

"Maybe we should have to Doc bot try to make a practice level that looks something like this." Bulk joked as the humans ran wildly. The femme bots smiled.

"Now that would be a life like setting." Arcee agreed.

* * *

><p>Well, there's my attempt at original humor, I hope it managed to be amusing at least. :)<p>

Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, college has a way of eating into my fan fiction time. We'll get back to main plot in the next chapter.

And on a side note, HOORAY! Season two has finally premiered! And by the looks of it this season will continue to be awesome and epic. :D


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

* * *

><p>Just as Bulkhead had predicted, the kitchen incident blew over pretty quickly. Within a few days Miko was joking and laughing about the whole thing, as were the rest of the kids. And when Bulkhead nearly went comatose after getting the synthetic energon formula downloaded into his processor the incident was completely forgotten.<p>

Flare sat on the floor in the main room with Rhea on her shoulder. The sound of Miko, Bulkhead and Jack getting competitive over a game made for pleasant enough background noise. Flare smiled in amusement as Bulkhead and Miko taunted each other, it was nice to have everyone back to normal.

Miko had gone through a strange phase shortly after her adventure with the Data Cylindar, she actually tried being _responsible_. For several days she didn't pull any pranks, chastised Bulkhead when he was reckless on a mission, didn't play a single loud song, said no to racing, did some of her homework, and didn't even look at the ground bridge when the bots went on a mission or patrol. And everyone could tell that she was absolutely miserable.

Eventually her guardian decided enough was enough. When he picked her up from school they went for a drive rather than going back to the base right away, and the two of them talked. Almost losing Bulkhead like that had scared Miko half to death, and she wanted to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again. She figured the best way to do that was no more insane stunts, crazy antics, and basically less "Miko-ness".

For a while Bulkhead wasn't sure what to say. Part of him was pleased by the fact that she put so much effort into her attempt to protect him and make things a little better for everyone else, while another part was very worried over how she thought she needed to abandon a part of herself to do it.

"Miko, I really appreciate what you are trying to do, but I think you're going about it the wrong way. I know we always bug you about getting better grades and being more responsible, but we never wanted you to stop being you. We really miss you Miko. I miss you."

Bulkhead really was smarter then he let on. When he and Miko pulled into the base later on, the first thing Miko did was tossed her backpack aside, ran to her guitar and cranked it up. Everyone, whether they admitted it or not, was relieved when she did. To be honest, Miko's 'responsibility' had really freaked them out. Her craziness had become a constant, which made it sort of comforting.

Flare smiled when Miko let out a shout of victory. Miko had basically gone back to being her normal self, except that she hadn't snuck through the ground bridge since then. That meant she hadn't forgotten her lesson completely, at least that's what Bulkhead told Flare. The femme sighed in contentment, and relaxed against the wall. She had just gotten done with her patrol, and decided to take a break a before starting any other tasks. When Rhea saw her sitting alone the girl had climbed up onto her shoulder, where they sat in companionable silence.

After a while Flare asked where everyone else was. According to Rhea, Ratchet was working as usual, Optimus was on a patrol, Arcee was busy doing some maintenance, and Raf and Bee had decided to go out racing. They started talking about each others day, but after a few minutes Flare realized her young charge wasn't listening to her anymore, and she was looking past her. She followed her line of sight and saw that Ratchet had come in and was working on the synthetic energon equations on the far side of the room.

"What's up Rhea?" Flare asked. The girl just kept staring. A little annoyed, the femme nudged her charge and said loudly "Stellar Flare to Rhea, come in please!"

"Huh?" The girl turned her head back to her guardian, looking a little confused. Then realization hit her. "Oh, I zoned off didn't I? I'm sorry, I'll pay attention this time."

"It wasn't that exciting of a story. I was kind of wondering what you found so fascinating about Ratchet's work." Rhea shifted uncomfortably on her friends shoulder, not looking her in the optic.

"Nothing in particular, I've just never seen equations like that." The fiery femme looked the young girl over. She was doing it again, changing the topic at the last minute. Flare shook her head, somehow it seemed ironic that random Miko had gone through more personal growth than temperate Rhea had recently. Maybe it was time about time for more direct approach. Flare got up and walked out into the hall away from the others, placed her charge on the ground, and knelt down, looking at her. The girl's blue eyes darted around nervously.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked. Flare sighed.

"No Rhea, I just wanted to talk to you."

"What about?" Flare was silent for a minute, trying to think of the best way to approach this.

"Rhea, why did you help me when I was captured at MECH?" The girl's light eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Didn't you ask me that before we left?"

"Yes, but I'd like to hear about it again."

"Well, you were so kind and understanding with me, even though you didn't have to be. When I realized that MECH would never let you leave alive, I knew I had to help you. I didn't know what would happen afterward, but I got the feeling that if you were there with me, then things would turn out okay."

"So part of the reason you decided to help me was because you cared about me." The two wheeler summarized. Rhea nodded slowly, unsure of where this was going. "Do also you trust me?" Rhea thought for a moment, then nodded again. "Then you should know that you don't have to hide from me."

"I'm not hiding from you." Rhea said with a frown. Flare vented a frustrated sigh.

"You're not physically hiding, but you are hiding yourself. You've been hiding yourself since the day I met you, when you ran away after I asked about your father." The girl looked away, wrapping her arms around herself. Flare gazed at her compassionately.

"Rhea, I just want you to know that I'm here for you. I care about and trust you too. I can tell that your afraid, of what I'm not sure, but I want to help you. I can't do that unless you give me something to go on though."

Rhea didn't say anything for a long minute.

"I've never had to tell any of my stories before. I grew up with MECH, so everyone already knew them. You really _want_ to hear about me?" The blonde asked incredulously. Flare smiled warmly, and stood up.

"Of course, we're friends."

Rhea thought about it, Flare had shared quite a few stories with her, yet it hadn't occurred to her that she should do the same. Most of the people she knew had never considered her story to be very important. Now that she was being invited to tell it, she wasn't sure how much she wanted to reveal. There were some things she would never share if it could be avoided, but maybe Flare was right. Everyone had been so generous with her; did that entitle them to know something about her past?

"You wanted to know why I was so interested in Ratchet's work, right?" Rhea asked as they walked side by side back toward the main room.

"You did seem pretty focused on him, it made me curious."

"All those strange equations he was looking over, they made me think of my Mom. She was a scientist too, and when I was younger I would see her pouring over equations at the dinner table." She smiled in remembrance. "At that age the equations my mother looked at seemed just as confusing as Ratchet's do now." Flare chuckled.

"You must have gotten you're tech smarts from her."

"In a way, yes. She was the one who home schooled me."

"You said she _was_ a scientist. Did she get transferred to a different position?" Rhea sighed, she'd been hoping to put this topic off a little longer.

"No, that's not it. You see she-" Alarms blared, and lights flashed red. "What's that?" Rhea asked looking around in alarm.

"I think it's the proximity alarm. Let's see what's going on."

LTHB

Optimus sighed internally as everyone gathered in the main room. He'd tried to keep Agent Fowler from visiting for as long as possible. He wanted to ensure that their two newest members had enough time to settle into the base before they were assaulted by the questions and concerns of the human government, but eventually the man needed to be told. Just a few hours after finding out about their most recent encounter with MECH Fowler had arrived at base to look into the situation personally. He hadn't even given Optimus the chance to share more than a brief overview of what all had happened, since he would soon see him in person.

"Prime!" Fowler shouted as she stormed into the base. "When we set up our report system I made it clear that you were to tell me immediately if anything major changed around here. So when you get a new bot on base and capture one of MECH's personnel you wait a couple of weeks before you tell me about it?" The bots and kids all stared at the scene as their giant leader tried to calm the accusing human.

"My apologies Agent Fowler, it was never my intent to deceive you about their presence. I merely wished for them to have time to recover from the stress and injuries gained during their arrival." The sound of pede falls turned their attention toward one of the hallway entrances.

"I assume this is the new bot?" The dark skinned man gestured to the red orange femme who had just walked into the room.

"Yes, and I assume you must be Agent Fowler." Flare replied. She bowed her head toward the agent. "My designation is Stellar Flare and It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Optimus has told me much about you, and has explained the role you carry out for your government. Please rest assured that I have been briefed on all of the rules regarding our contact with the outside world, and that I will follow them to the best of my ability." Fowler calmed slightly at the femmes pleasant tone and gentle reassurance. It had been a long time since anyone at the base had greeted him so politely, except for Prime.

"Good, I'll hold you to that." The agent gave her a sharp nod. Maybe the bots weren't slacking off as much as he'd thought. There wasn't much more he could do about Flare at the moment, so he moved onto his next item of business. "So where have you been keepin' this 'Rhea Rimmer' from MECH, locked up in a back room somewhere? You know as a human prisoner our government should be the one to have her in custody, and we reserve the right to be the first to interrogate her."

"What?" A small voice brought his attention back to Flare, who was looking at the ground in concern. Following her gaze he saw a young girl, clinging to the femme's pede and looking up at him in worried confusion.

"You brought **another** civilian child into this!" Fowler shouted, his temper flaring again. What? Did the bots make finding a human charge a requirement for joining the ranks? Ratchet tapped the railing to get the man's attention.

"In case you were wondering, this is the human you've been demanding to see since you waltzed in here." Fowler's jaw dropped in disbelief, but he quickly closed it. He looked back at the bewildered girl clinging to Flare, and then back to Prime as if to say 'Seriously?' Optimus nodded.

"Yes Agent Fowler, this is the young woman who has joined us from MECH, and aided in Stellar Flare's escape. During their recovery, both of them have shown model behavior."

"That's good to know," Fowler nodded absently, taking in the new information. "but my orders still stand. I'll need to ask her a few questions and make some decisions." Optimus sighed internally.

"Very well. There are several unused rooms that would be suitable for a private talk."

"Optimus Prime, sir? I request permission to be present during this 'interrogation'." Flare quickly spoke up. Inwardly she cursed the man's timing. Slag it, they were just starting to make progress!

After a moments thought, Optimus nodded. Fowler was about to object, but didn't when he took another look at the strawberry blonde still clinging to the fiery femme. He hadn't been prepared to talk to someone this young, maybe having a familiar face in the room wouldn't be such a bad idea.

After a short discussion they decided to have their little talk in the supply room, so Flare could easily fit in. No one noticed a slim figure slip out the hall after them a few minutes later.

LTHB

A small square table and two chairs had been set up, at which Rhea and Fowler sat across from each other with Flare sitting cross legged off to the side. Fowler leaned forward with his elbows on the table, calmly contemplating how best to proceed. When Prime had mentioned a young woman from MECH he'd been expecting soldier in her twenties, not a little kid. The kid had gone through a minor transformation since he'd first saw her. Once she realized what was going on she went from confused to determined, like an athlete getting psyched for a big game. At the same time her rigid body suggested tension. The man wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Look, there's no need to for you to get so worked up. I'm just going to ask you a few simple questions, and I'd appreciate it if you answered honestly, okay?" Rhea nodded her understanding, her expression neutral.

"Alright then, let's start with something simple. What's your full name and age?"

"My name is Rhea Kay Rimmer, sir. I'm thirteen years old." Rhea decided to go with her younger age estimate. Fowler jotted down the answer on a notepad.

"What is your mother's name?"

"Teresa Rimmer."

"Do you know her maiden name?" Fowler asked. The strawberry blonde frowned slightly.

"Rimmer is her maiden name, sir."

"Well, what's your father's last name then?"

"My father has no last name that I am aware of." Fowler raised an eyebrow at her.

"Do you at least know his first name then?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well?" Fowler pressed. She said nothing, keeping her mask of neutrality. He sighed and got up, taking a few steps closer to the girl. Her eyes darted to her guardian, who nodded reassuringly.

"You know this could actually help you and your dad." The man prodded "It would get you good standing with the American government, and if you tell me about your dad I might be able to grant him a little more amnesty if he's ever caught."

"Father will never be caught." She said darkly. Both human and Autobot frowned. Flare had never heard her use such a tone before. Fowler took a step closer to ask just what she meant by that, but when raised his hand to gesture the girl suddenly flinched. The agent's frown deepened as he lowered his hand slowly.

"I'm not going to hurt you alright? I don't know what kind of things happen during an interrogation where you're from but we don't do anything like that here." The girl didn't seem entirely convinced, but relaxed a little when Flare put a comforting hand on her back. Fowler continued. "Ms. Rimmer, did others physically harm you while you were at MECH?"

"Only when I got in the way, sir." she admitted. A pang went through Flare's spark, remembering Rhea's discolored face just before the escape. Unconsciously her fingers curled around her charge. Fowler stayed on his side of the table for the rest of the interrogation.

"This one should be pretty simple too." Fowler pulled out a stack of maps from his briefcase. "We want to know where some of MECH's bases are. Think you can help us out?"

She took the papers from him without a word. Together the maps covered every square inch of the globe. She looked over them for several minutes, and finally pointed out a few mountain ranges that she said might have a MECH base. Which would have been great, except that it would take many months to do a proper search and they would need to get permission from foreign governments to do so.

"Can't you be a little more specific?" the agent pleaded.

"Information is handed out on a strictly 'need to know' basis at MECH. I'm not a pilot, or a driver, or even a senior member, so I never needed to know the exact location of any base." Fowler sighed and moved on.

Next he asked her about codes and communication frequencies, and he got the same explanation as Ratchet. MECH was prepared for one of their own being captured or running off, so whenever that happened all codes and frequencies were changed, and the pattern was random. The passwords she had used to get into the base computers and help Flare would be useless now.

Then he asked about technology, which is when she shut up entirely. She refused to say anything related to the projects they were working on or how advanced their systems were. Flare tried to coax her charge into being more cooperative, but the only thing they got was that same stoic expression. Fowler really did try his best to be patient, but eventually he had enough of beating around the bush.

"Do you believe in MECH's cause?" he finally asked her. Rhea's expression faltered a little, but she didn't hesitate in her answer.

"No, sir."

"Did you like what was being done to your guardian while she was there?"

"Of course not!" Her mask was slipping.

"So you knew that the little 'projects' and experiments they were doing were hurting people, and that what they were doing is very wrong." he continued aggressively. The girl began to squirm.

"Well, yes, I did know that on some level."

"Then why did you help them all those years?"

"Agent Fowler-" Flare tried to cut in. The man gave her a sharp look.

"Don't pretend you don't want to know." He turned back to Rhea "Answer the question."

"I-I don't know, I mean, that's just the way things were!"

"Don't you get it kid? You're not at MECH anymore! You don't have to follow their orders, you don't have to live your life by their rules." The girl looked at him helplessly.

"I know, but, I don't want them to get hurt. My father is still back there. I don't want to betray him."

"You already did." Fowler pointed out. She bowed her head, eyes glistening.

"Look, I get wanting to protect your family, and I get that you were low ranking and weren't told everything. But I can tell there are some things you do know, things that you're hiding form us. You said you know that their wrong. So how can you keep defending all of them with you silence? Why do you try to shield their crimes? Why do you protect that monster Silas?" Rhea's head suddenly snapped up.

"Silas is not a monster." she hissed at him.

"Isn't he? He's kidnapped civilians and left them to die, captured and dissected a Bot and a Con, risked the lives of thousands of innocents, and all in the pursuit of the best weapons tech. Sounds pretty monstrous to me. And that's just the stuff that I know about! "

"He...he wasn't always like that."

"And how would you know?"

"Because he's my father!"


	11. Chapter 11

Author's note:

I hope the revelation that Silas and Rhea are related wasn't too much of a faith breaker for anyone. Thanks for keeping with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p><em>Yes, here was a curious revelations, indeed of the depth to which this people had been sunk in slavery. Their entire being was reduced to a monotonous dead level of patience, resignation, dumb uncomplaining acceptance of whatever might befall them in this life. <em>

_- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court. By Mark Twain_

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><p>Silence descended upon the room like the blade of a headman's ax, sudden and painful.<p>

At least, that's how it felt to Rhea.

Within a few moments she went from defensive to horrified. Her eyes grew wide with shock and realization, both hands flew to her mouth, as if she could somehow shove the words back in. Under different circumstances her expression, similar to one of those 'speak no evil' monkeys, might have been amusing.

"WHAT!" Agent Fowler's voice resounded through the room. "You mean Silas, as in the head honcho of MECH, is your Father?" Giving up all pretense of calm and neutrality the young girl cringed away from him. After the deadly silence the shout was like someone punching a fresh wound. It also drowned out the slight scuffling noise that came from just beyond the door.

"Y-yes, but, I-I didn't, I mean, I-I, Oh God." Rhea buried her face in her hands. That had been one of the few things she didn't want anyone here to ever find out about, one of the things she swore she would keep a secret if anything like this ever happened. _'You see, this is why it took them more than four years to trust you with anything important.' _said a matter-of-fact voice in the back of her head. She didn't argue with it.

Questions and fears ran through her head a mile a minute. One in particular struck her: What would Flare think? She mustered up enough courage to peak through her fingers and get a look at Flare. She saw the stunned look on the bot's face and assumed the worst.

"Please don't be mad at me!" She begged her guardian. "I never liked what he was doing! Not ever! I just, I didn't know what else to do! Things just started- then Mom- didn't want to- then you-" Her desperate rambling started to become incoherent. She saw Flare try to interrupt her, but she didn't stop. She couldn't stop. Flare had to understand, she just had too!

"Rhea!" the femme finally broke through the girl's babbling. "For Primus's sake calm down!"

The girl fell silent.

"It's okay. We're not accusing you, we're just trying to get this figured out." Fowler looked like he was about to say something, but the femme silenced him with a look. "So, Silas is your paternal creator?" Rhea nodded meekly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Flare was unable to hide the hurt in her voice.

"Because you were so kind to me."

"What?" Flare shuttered her optics in confusion.

"I saw what he was doing to you." Rhea continued in a quiet voice. "I know how much you must hate him. I didn't want you to hate me too."

"Rhea..."

"Look, I know how stupid this sounds, me trying to defend him, but it's true! I realize how cruel he is and how awful he can be, but things were different before MECH. I mean, he wasn't lovey dovey all the time, but he wasn't so bad. I remember some nights he would ruffle my hair before I went to bed, and he would tell me he loved me." A strange mix of hurt and longing flashed across her face. "I wish I could explain it better."

"Well, you could give give it another shot, maybe a little slower this time?" Flare said, trying to lighten the mood. The child looked into her guardian's eyes. It had the same affect it always had, it made her feel safe.

"I haven't always always lived at MECH, my first memories were of a house out in the country. We didn't get many visitors, and Dad worked a lot, which meant that I spent most of my time at home with my Mom." A small smile appeared on Rhea's face.

"Mom really was wonderful. She was kind, generous, warm, and thoughtful. It seemed like she was never too busy to read to me or to admire one of my drawings, no matter how bad it was. She was always there, and always knew how to make things feel better." the smile disappeared.

"My father was a different story though. I loved and admired him. Even when I was little I knew he was very intelligent and clever, both of my parents were. But Dad had something more, he was so confident and ambitious. It seemed like there was nothing he couldn't do, and I wished I could have been like that. He never sugar coated anything. If I made something and showed it to him he would tell me all the ways it could be done better, but that always made me want to try harder next time. Dad taught me the value of hard work, and that there is always room for improvement. I looked up to him the same way one might look up at a star. He shined so brightly, but he was also cold, distant, and always out of my reach."

The girl never turned away from Flare as she explained, as if paying sole attention to her guardian would somehow guarantee the bot's understanding.

"Like I said earlier, before MECH things weren't so bad. Dad had to work a lot to support us, so I didn't see him very often. I think Mom was lonely because of it, but she understood why he had to be away so much. Every now and then we did get to eat dinner together as a family though. He and Mom would end up talking about the news, and Silas would start ranting about how what an awful state the world was in. I was to young to understand most of what he talked about. Mom would agree with him on some parts, but she never ranted like he did."

Her brow furrowed in thought.

"Then things started to change, when I was about seven I think. Dad stopped ranting every time we ate together, instead he would talk to Mom about a group that he and some other people were working on. When he told her what the group was about, and what it was meant to change, Mom would be really excited and offer to help. So he started bringing home things for her to work on. That's where I got the image of Mom and equations at the dinner table."

"That group was MECH wasn't it?" Flare asked.

"Yes, it was. I don't know if that's when if was first being founded or if the forces that created MECH had been working on it for while, but that's when I remember Silas getting involved." Flare nodded thoughtfully. Neither of them paid much attention to Fowler's lightning fast scribbling as Rhea continued.

"Life was great, for a while. Mom and Dad were getting along really well, they both were so happy with all the progress that was being made. I was glad that Dad was calmer too, because he could get scary when he yelled. But then Dad started to spend more and more time away from home, and he got colder. He had never been warm like Mom, I could never talk to him like I could with her." She struggled with her words for a moment."But before when he was able to come home, he would at least talk to me. Now he was too busy for that, too busy for either of us. Mom started to get worried about it too. She had a 'heated discussion' with Silas about it, and he suggested that Mom and I could move into one of the bases that MECH had set up. She thought it was a good idea. I suppose she thought that things would get better and maybe go back to normal if we got to spend more time together like before."

"Did they?" Flare asked after a bit of a pause. The girl shook her head.

"Not at all. The more Mom found out about the group, and what her work was being used for, the more upset she became. She and Silas would fight almost every day, and he always found a way to get her to back down. He'd tell her that she should trust him, and that everything being done had been deemed necessary to reach their goals, the very goals that she had been excited about in the beginning. He would be nicer right after a fight too. He'd do something nice for Mom, or spend a little more time with us. That worked for a while, but she eventually stopped buying that. She told him that she would leave him if things went on like that."

Memories flashed through Rhea's mind. Her mother's uncharacteristic fury contrasting greatly with her fathers disturbing tranquility. Diving into her room to hide. Her mother's brown eyes, normally so full of light, set in a tear stained face and filled with regret.

"It was only then that I saw how cruel he could be. He would intimidate her into staying with him and the organization, usually by threatening to separate Mom and me. Violence wasn't completely off the table though. No matter how many times she threatened to leave, she would choose stay."

"So she's still with him now?" Fowler suddenly asked incredulously. Rhea started a little. She'd almost forgotten the agent was there.

"No." she replied, looking away from him to hide the glistening in her eyes. "She always chose to stay with him, until it wasn't her choice anymore. Mom went to work one of the labs, and there was an accident. The doctors tried, but she was just too far gone." Silence again. Rhea didn't fill it with internal questions this time, she was too focused on the pang in her heart and the weighted feeling of her chest.

"That's what you were about to tell me earlier, wasn't it?" Flare asked her. The girl nodded slowly.

"I'm sorry."Flare said softly. The words sounded hollow to Rhea, she didn't acknowledge them. What was there to say?

"What did you do?"

"I stayed there. I became a member of MECH." The girl replied as though it should be obvious. Flare, still trying to process all this new information at once, could only think of one thing to ask.

"Why?" Her charge's eyes suddenly flashed.

"_Why_? You mean why didn't I try to leave? Why didn't I run off? Where exactly would I have **gone** Flare? Silas never mentioned his family, and my Mom's relatives were long gone. The only personnel I had talked to at the base were the doctors and a few scientists, and that was just a little. My father was all I had left!"

She slumped down in her chair, eyes staring off into nothing.

"And is it so bad, that I had a little hope? Is it so wrong that a part of me still believes he can't be completely gone? I hoped that if I stayed with him long enough maybe I could see past Silas, and find a little bit of my Daddy left in there. Things weren't so bad at MECH you know. I got to see Silas more often. I made a few casual friends, I learned new skills. Things were okay...so long as I was quiet, and didn't complain, and didn't ask too many questions, and did as I was told..." Her voice trailed off, but her lips moved silently as the list continued.

Fowler cleared his throat, the sound snapping her back to the present.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, but I do have one more thing to ask." Rhea tiredly nodded her ascent.

"Do you think Silas will be looking for you?" he questioned in a gentle voice. Rhea shrugged.

"Probably not. Only the really important people warrant a search or possible rescue."

"But you're his kid."

"Yeah, and I'm also one of the lowest ranking personnel at MECH. I mostly did menial work, cooking cleaning, things the officers didn't want to take their turn doing. I was a part of the tech crew, but I was still learning. Anyone else could be taught to the same level. I'm replaceable. That's why I jumped at the chance to be a part of the tech crew, the more specialized your skills the more valuable you become."

Fowler tried to think of something to say to that, but couldn't come up with anything. He glanced at the Autobot next to them, who had worry written clearly across her face. It probably wasn't his place to say anything anyway. He decided to just move onto his last question, one he'd only thought of after Rhea had explained her lineage.

"Is your connection to Silas well known?"

"Not anymore. Only MECH's high ranking officers know now, since they were familiar with Silas before Mom and I moved to the base. The new recruits aren't told, it's not something they really need to know. Besides, Silas has a reputation to keep. Being connected to a weak little kid like me doesn't really comply with his image, so I was basically treated like any other soldier." she lips curved into a wry smile, and her voice gained a bitter edge.

"I was quite the puzzle for the other personnel, you know. All of them had worked hard to get into MECH and earn their positions, they couldn't figure out how someone like me had managed to get in. The soldiers who had been there for years got it half right, they guessed it was because of my Mom. She had been a brilliant scientist after all, so they assumed MECH had allowed me there in order to obtain her valued services. A few of the younger ones made a game out of it, trying to come up with the most creative explanation for my presence there. They came up with some pretty 'interesting' theories."

"I see. That's should do it for the questions." Fowler said after a moments pause. "Flare, let's talk outside for moment." Flare reluctantly got up to follow him. As the two moved for the door Rhea started to get up too. "No, no, you stay here okay?" She obediently sat down, and her guardian and the agent disappeared into the hall

LTHB

Fowler paced the width of the corridor a few times before turning the the flame colored bot. Her gaze was fixed on door to the supply room, her expression unreadable. He tapped her leg to get her attention.

"Flare, I can see how much you care about that girl, so I don't want you to take this the wrong way-"

"You're going to take her away aren't you?" The femme's taut voice cut him off.

"I think it's for the best."

"And what makes you think that's best for her?" She demanded in irritation. He had only met Rhea today for spark's sake! Sure he'd heard her story, but did that make up for talking with her and spending time with her everyday for the past month? Her own processor was still whirring with everything she had just learned about her charge. A part of her still couldn't believe that sweet gentle Rhea could be related to someone as selfish and uncaring as Silas, and she was still in shock over it. Though she understood why she had kept it a secret, she still felt hurt that her charge hadn't come forth with any of this sooner. There was something else that pained her too, how self deprecating Rhea's tone had become near the end.

_'I'm replaceable.'_ _'weak little kid'. _

When she heard those words a part of her stopped caring that Rhea had hidden so much from her, and was replaced by an innate desire to comfort her. Besides, she had intended to explain about her maternal creator before Agent Fowler arrived. Surely she would have told Flare about all of this eventually, right?

The government agent, on the other hand, saw things differently.

"Did you even hear her in there? I've never seen someone with such mixed up emotions. Besides, this is as much for safety as it is for her or for gaining intel. She's already switched sides once, she might do it again. Especially if Silas is in danger but none of you are."

"She can't go back to Silas. He would probably kill her or at least make her suffer for betraying them, and she knows it!" Fowler snorted at her.

"With the way she talked about him, I'm not sure she would care it would get her killed."

"But she needs a friend to help her work that out, to help her get past that." Flare insisted.

"What she needs is a good psychiatrist. Look, I'll give you some time to grab anything she needs and to say your good byes while I explain things to everyone else, but either way I'm going to have to take her with me."

"Could you at least give us more time?" Flare pleaded. The agent sighed and shook his head.

"Even if I passed this decision along to one of my superiors the end result would be the same. The higher ups will come to the same conclusion about safety, and even if safety wasn't an issue she's still very valuable. We have so little info on MECH that even her knowledge of the day to day activities and assignments will be useful. And the cons haven't seen her, so there's no reason she shouldn't be in our custody." He placed a hand on her leg, meaning it to be comforting. "I'll keep an eye on her, make sure she get's treated well back at head quarters, alright?"

Flare nodded in resignation, and watched the agent leave before going back in to give Rhea the news.

LTHB

Rhea, obedient as always, had not moved from her seat while they had been talking. Flare sat down next to her, trying to think of how best to tell her of Agent Fowler's decision.

"I have to go don't I?" Rhea whispered.

"Did you hear us through the door?" Flare asked, a little surprised her charge had beat her to the punch.

"No, I just guessed from your expression. And that was part of the reason Agent Fowler came here."

"Rhea, I'm not just letting you go without a fight. I'll talk to Optimus, and we can get something figured out." Rhea shook her head dolefully.

"It's okay, you don't have to. I know you all have to abide by human laws, this was inevitable."

Without warning Rhea jumped off her seat and clambered up Flare until the small girl was able to fling her arms around her guardian's neck. Surprised, Flare put a hand on the child's back to steady her.

"Thank you so much." Rhea whispered."For everything. Optimus said I helped you escape from MECH, but you helped me escape too. I'll never forget that." Warmth spread through Flare's spark, and she held the youngling tighter.

"You're not replaceable Rhea. Don't let anyone tell you that." Flare whispered back fiercely.

Eventually they had to separate, and Flare waited for her charge as she packed a few necessities. Rhea had accepted that she had to leave, but that didn't mean she was happy about it. Knowing that she would be on her own once she left the base terrified her, but she couldn't leave without Flare knowing how grateful she was. She was glad she'd at least gotten a chance to tell her that.

She gently placed her bear into the small back pack she was filling, trying to delay the process as much as she could, and thought about all the femme meant to her. Meeting Flare had been a wake up call to her. It made her realize she couldn't turn away from reality anymore. And when Silas refused to let Flare go, and made it clear that he wouldn't reconsider, she had realized something else too. She was tired, so tired, of trying to exist in a world where she would never truly belong.

She had started to think she might have that here, a place where she was safe and, more importantly, wanted. She packed a picture frame wrapped in paper into the pack, making sure it wouldn't be jostled. She should have known better, Optimus had even said it himself. She would remain here until she was healed and she had been deemed fully recovered a week ago. There was no point in fighting the inevitable.

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><p>As she and Flare entered the main room she noticed all the bots and kids turn to them. Obviously Fowler had gotten done explaining to them. Rhea scanned the room quickly, Raf and Bumblebee still weren't back. Her heart sank a little further, she would have liked to see them one more time before leaving.<p>

"I take it you all got the full back story?" Flare asked in a wry tone.

"I was explaining it to them," Fowler shot a glare at a way too innocent looking Miko "but apparently they got it early."

Flare glared at the raven haired girl too. Rhea just glanced at her before heading up the stairs. The expressions worn ranged from bewildered to grave to accusing, but she didn't flinch under any of their gazes.

"I'm ready." she said once she was next to Fowler. He put a hand on her back and guided her toward the elevator. Just as the door began to close, her hand shot out and the door stopped. She took one last look at the main room and everyone assembled.

"I'm sorry." she said to the whole group. She pulled her hand back, and let the door close.

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><p>Author's note:<p>

Keep in mind that Rhea's explanation is only one viewpoint on Silas and MECH. Others with be explored later in the story. ;) I'd love to hear what you think so far, so feel free to leave a review!

Also, I figured out a way to get links to show up on here (kind of) so you can have an idea of what Flare's vehicle mode looks like. When you copy them remember to get rid of all the spaces, and put a period where it says dot and a / where it says slash. (just add a bit more orange on the body of the bike and change the black to a dark violet color.)

bmwsuperbikes dot com slash Images slash K13S82 dot jpg

webbikeworld dot com slash BMW-motorcycles slash bmw-k-1300-s slash bmw-k-1300-s-left dot jpg


	12. Chapter 12

This is easily the longest chapter I've ever written for a story. I hope it makes up for the long wait.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p><em>Though I'd die to know you love me, I'm all alone<em>.- Missing, Evanescence

_Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep...Too long I've been afraid of losing love, I guess I've lost. Well if that's love, it comes at much to high a cost!-_ Defying Gravity, Wicked

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><p>A surprised voice sounded inside the cab of a yellow and black muscle car that sped down the dusty desert roads.<p>

"You want to try soccer?" Raf asked his guardian. "I don't know Bee, we already had to do a lot of convincing to be allowed to play basketball on a Cybertronian scale. And aren't we still on probation for Bucca incident?" The two were heading back to base now that they were done racing. Raf had just been placing his model car on the floor when Bumblebee brought up this new desire.

Bee beeped in confirmation of their continuing probation, but quickly explained that's not what he had in mind.

"You want get in on my family's weekend game by using your hologram? Can a hologram even touch a ball?" The Esquivel family had a tradition of playing a game of futbol together every weekend, but he didn't realize his guardian had taken such an interest in it. Raf was getting increasingly surprised, but also intrigued by the idea of 'solid' holograms. The yellow car beeped and whistled at him some more.

"I don't know Bee, even if you do ask Ratchet nicely he may not want to do unnecessary modifications with supplies being low." Bee gave a few innocent whistles, and Raf stiffened.

"What! Why do I have to ask him? Just because he's not allowed to hurt me doesn't mean he won't be mad." Bumblebee pleaded with his charge, and Raf gave the idea some thought. All in all it may not be a bad idea for his family to become more familiar with Bee's hologram. His Mama and a few of his siblings had already met with his guardian's hologram version, it was pretty much unavoidable. While the house was pretty chaotic it wasn't like his family would allow a stranger to drive him to school each day. Bee had chosen a teenage hologram, and they'd gone with the story that he was a friend of Jack's. That had gained Bee a few points in his Mama's eyes, both June and Jack had excellent reputations in town. Still, actually trying to get Bee involved with his family would be a big step. It might make them more willing to trust Bee if he needed to protect Raf and the other members of his family, but it might be dangerous for them to get any more involved with the bot than they had to. Plus, Raf was a little reluctant to have the world of the bots and his family mix. Being in a big family meant he didn't have a lot of things that were really his. His clothes were so baggy on him because they were hand-me-downs from siblings who had been taller when they were his age. Being involved with Bee and the rest of the bots was one of the few things Raf had that no other member of his family did.

But he figured it was kind of selfish to purposefully try to keep Bee out when he clearly wanted to become more involved. Bee was family too, he loved the bot just as much as his Mama, Papa, siblings and cousins. Raf didn't like the idea of shutting his family out when he didn't have to.

"Well, maybe I could bring the subject up with Ratchet and see how he reacts to it before actually asking him." Bee whistled gratefully and happily to his charge, making the small boy grin.

As the two approached the base entrance Bee's curious beep caught Rafael's attention.

"Fowler's here?" The young boy asked, leaning forward to try seeing the helicopter. Bee was partially right, since the agent was there, but the chopper was just taking off. A small motion caught Raf's eye, and he looked closer. Through the helicopter's window he could see someone was with Fowler, and they were waving at him and Bee as the chopper was rising.

"Wait, is that Rhea? Why is she leaving with Fowler?" The boy wondered. His guardian beeped worriedly that he didn't know. The striped car sped up a little, eager to find out what had happened while they were away.

LTHB

Flare turned at the sound of an engine roaring down the hall. Within moments Bumblebee appeared in the main room and Rafael jumped out of the passenger side with his toy car. Almost immeadiately they asked about Rhea and Fowler. Miko was the one to jump up and start explaining it to them, making it all sound much more adventurous than it had been. Flare shook her head and walked out of the main room. She was slightly sickened by how happily Miko could talk about all this, the girl _must_ have seen how everyone else was reacting to it. She was too tired to deal with it right now though. Maybe a session in the training room would help her work off some steam, and make her body tired enough so her processor couldn't argue when she wanted to recharge. After that maybe she could talk to Prime about all of this.

Before she got to the training room she heard pedefalls behind her. Flare turned, and her exausted optics immeadiatly locked onto Arcee's vengeful ones. The flame colored femme froze, unsure of what her fellow cycle bot intended. Arcee had been one of the bots with a less than friendly expression as Rhea was leaving. While Flare knew Arcee wasn't normally the kind to pick a fight with a fellow teammate she also knew how much of a temper her friend had.

"Uh, hey Cee." Flare offered awkwardly. Arcee wasn't in the mood for small talk though.

"Did you know?" Arcee asked in a tight voice.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. Did you know about Rhea and Silas's relationship?" The blue femme demanded hotly. Arcee didn't bother trying to hide that she was seething inside. She had been ever since Miko had run in and announced what she'd overheard from the interrogation room. Everyone else had been confused and asked for more details than the simple fact that the relationship existed, but not Arcee. The only question that went through the femme's mind what if all Rhea had done around them was a lie. Rhea was Silas's offspring, did that mean she had known about everything that had happened between the Autobots and MECH the whole time? She was probably pretending when she acted like the medical bay was the first place she'd ever seen Jack or June. If she'd been that close to Silas then she would have known about the whole operation to kidnap the nurse, and the alliance with Airachnid.

The possibility of such a deception made Arcee's energon lines boil.

Optimus was right when he said MECH was made of Decepticons in human skin, and Arcee had known plenty of cons who could act or charm their way behind enemy lines. What if Rhea had been playing a part, like Ratchet had originally suspected? Her nervousness may have been an act to ally suspicion, just like Starscream when he tricked her into a fight.

"No, I didn't know Arcee! Why are you being so aggressive?" Flare was starting to reach her own boiling point, and her words came out sharper than she had intended.

"How can you take this so calmly? All this time we've had our base open to someone so close to one of our greatest enemies, someone who would never hesitate to hurt us or the humans if he could get something out of it!" Arcee's assertion made Flare pause.

_'So close? Rhea herself said that she was usually treated like any bottom rung soldier when she joined...'_ It occurred to Flare that maybe the other Autobots and humans hadn't gotten the full story like she believed. What if they had only been told about the connection to Silas, but not the rest of it? If

"I don't know how much you really heard Arcee, but Rhea and Silas aren't exactly 'close'. It's more complicated than that." She felt tempted to reveal more, but didn't want to tell the others more than she was sure Rhea would be comfortable with, especially now that she had a choice. The fiery femme was a little more than surprised when all she got from her friend was a huff and optic role. "You don't believe me?"

"I believe she fed you some sort of story. But, you know Flare, you do have a bit of a reputation for being 'taken in' easily." Flare frowned in confusion, her optics widening as she put the dots together.

"Are you saying I'm gullible? I-I'm not gullible!" she sputtered indignantly. Arcee rolled her optics again, but her voice lost some of it's anger.

"Flare, you became the fall back victim for the twin's pranks for a reason. Everybot at that base eventually learned to see through their set ups, everyone except you. Face it, you're a sucker for a sob story. I just want to make sure it isn't going to be your undoing. If you don't want to get taken advantage of you need to be more careful with who you trust." When Flare didn't respond Arcee gave her a hard look, and then disappeared down the hallway.

For a minute Flare just stood there in shock. Often times she admired Arcee's tendency to go straight to the heart of things and not waste time dancing around an issue like some bots did, but she had never taken it to such a personal level before. Flare shook herself out of her daze and wandered slowly toward her room, contemplating her friends words along the way.

Maybe Arcee had a point. She did fall for the pranks of Sunny and Sides almost every time. Even when she suspected them of something she had gone along with it, deciding to give them the benefit of the doubt, no matter how many times it backfired on her. The pranks kept things lively and upbeat though, so any grief she got for it had always been playful. She'd never seen it as that big of a problem. Was it so wrong that she tried to have faith in others and see the best in every bot?

But that made her wonder about other things too. She sometimes asked herself why she had been selected to be upgraded to a sniper and outfitted with her specialized targeting visor. True she was already a pretty good shot, but she hadn't been the best in their troop, nor was she the worst close combat fighter. Could it be that her superiors feared an enemy would be able to talk their way past her and take advantage of her faith in others? If that was the case then it would make sense to keep her far from the front lines, and making her a sniper meant she mostly dealt with enemies from a distance. If her superiors had been able to make that decision so early on then maybe she was too trusting for her own good.

Another connection suddenly struck her, making her pause right outside the door to her quarters. Did that put her in danger of falling into the same deadly cycle as her charge? She'd grown increasingly more disturbed as she'd listened to Rhea talk about Silas, the way she switched between bitterness and longing, how she spent several years of her life waiting for a remembered parent that gave no sign of coming back. Was Flare herself doing something similar with Rhea? Trying to keep the girl with her and defend her even when evidence said that doing so could be dangerous to the others. Flare couldn't believe Rhea would hurt them purposefully, but maybe Fowler had a point as well. Despite the hurt and bitterness that had accompanied the girl's explanation of her relationship to MECH Flare could also see a little bit of hope. It was like Rhea still believed their might be a chance for Silas to go back to the way she remembered him. If that were the case it would be difficult to tell which side she would choose if Silas's life was threatened.

Tiredly, Flare opened the door and slipped inside her room. She had a lot to think about.

LTHB

Rhea gazed out the helicopter window. A part of her had been surprised when Fowler told her they didn't need to put on any special helmets or equipment in order to fly in the helicopter, such things were a must back at MECH. Fowler was trying to explain how that was possible as they took off, but she was too distracted by the sight of Bumblebee's alt form racing down the road toward base to listen very closely. She was happy she managed to fit in a wave before they disappeared from sight, at least she'd been able to say goodbye in some form. The lifting affects of that comfort had worn off by now though, and she continued to stare gloomily out the window next to her. She was starting to resent the changes made to the helicopter now. She'd only been in a chopper once before, but that was enough for her to know how loud they could be during flight. The relative quiet of this one made the silence between agent and adolescent even more awkward.

Fowler may not have been the most pleasant or agreeable of humans, as several of the bots would testify, but he wasn't cold or harsh by nature. So he did feel a twinge of guilt whenever he glanced at the young woman sitting shotgun in the chopper. It's not like any of this was his fault, but it was hard not to feel that way when he saw someone this young so depressed. This really hadn't been in his original job description.

"Hey kid," the agent suddenly decided to break the awkward silence "I know things don't look too cheerful right now, but try looking on the bright side. You don't have to worry about getting stepped on any more, or about the Doc's infamous temper." he tried to lighten the mood a little.

"Yes sir." Rhea's words lacked inflection, making the agent wonder if she'd really been listening. He decided to continue anyway.

"You also don't have to worry about being at HQ too much. The facilities are real nice, and the people aren't too bad either. A little uptight from time to time, but still good people. I'll keep an eye on you just in case though. After we've officially determined that you're no threat we could set you up with a good pair of foster parents, maybe get you going to a real school too. All the makings of a nice normal teenage life."

"I'm not sure school would be a good idea, sir. Silas has the best facial recognition technology, public appearances would up my chances of being found." Rhea felt obliged to point that out, but she understood what Agent Fowler was getting at. She might yet have the sort of life that had been denied to her before. Normal...she wasn't even sure what it meant. She got the impression that most of her life hadn't been 'normal'.

"That is something to watch out for, but I'm sure we can find a way past it. Every kid deserves a good home after all." Fowler said with a great amount of conviction. Rhea gave another 'Yes sir', as her mind began to wonder again. For a long time she'd thought of MECH as home, only to realize that it hadn't really felt like home for quite a while. The Autobot base hadn't felt like home when she first got their either. The last time she'd felt truly at home had been with her mother, and that was a long time ago. Was home a place or a person then? Maybe it was some combination of both, and memories could be a part of it too. Only the good memories though. She'd felt more at home in her first house than at any MECH base.

Fowler saw he was losing her again, and tried one more time.

"You know, I might be able to swing it so that you can make some video calls to Flare and the others back at base." That got the girl's attention almost instantly.

"Really?" she asked in excited disbelief.

"Sure, but you'll have to be on your best behavior. The higher ups are a little more accomadating when they can work with someone cooperative."

"I'll do my best." Rhea vowed. The idea that she might be able to see her guardian again, and maybe have the chance make up for hiding her lineage to the others, lifted her spirits a good deal and she started to truly take in her surroundings for the first time. This was actually a pretty nice chopper, with all the latest gadgets and gizmos installed. There were some straps in the back for cargo, a few of which were currently being used to secure Rhea's navy blue back pack. She allowed herself to appreciate the desert landscape too. That had been another surprise to her after exiting the base, it had been so cool inside that she never would have guessed the base was located in such a hot arid climate. As her eyes took in the impressively deep gorges and rich red rock, something began to bother her. A nagging sense of familiarity began to grow as the traveled further, but she couldn't figure out why. She certainly hadn't flown over a desert before, so why couldn't she shake the feeling of familiarity?

She was on the verge of voicing her wonderment when the helicopter shifted violently.

She immeadiately turned to Agent Fowler, and from the intense look on his face and the sudden change of direction she deduced that something had caused the agent to take evasive manuevers.

"What is it?" she managed to ask between the chopper's rapid movements.

"We got ourselves a bogey." the man said grimly, quickly flipping on a distress signal. For the love of Uncle Sam! He'd already had to change his flight course once to keep the Cons from tailing him, how did they find him again?

Rhea glanced at the radar panel imbedded in the choppers dash board. A flashing red mark indicated that something wasindeed following them, how had she missed that beeping? She twisted herself around to try and look behind the chopper, but all she could see was a sort of line of smoke trailing behind them. It was a projectile of some sort then? She righted herself and was about to ask the agent what she could do to help, but the look on his face clearly said he couldn't afford distractions right now.

Agent Fowler took the chopper deeper into the ravine bellow them. Maybe he could lose this thing after a few tight turns. The retired ranger zigged and zagged among the rock outcroppings, yet their tail persisted. The chopper came to a fork in the canyon, the pathway on the right making a particularly sharp turn.

_'Let's see if you can handle this one!'_ Fowler thought defiantly as he veered right. The g-force on this turn made Rhea think the seat straps were going to break and send her flying. Fowler had been right though, the turn was too much for the projectile. It missed the helicopter and exploded against one of the canyon walls. Unfortunately the turn was also too much for Fowler. He couldn't stop the helicopter's tail from slamming into another section of the canyon. The agent desperately attempted to regain control as the vehicle began to spiral. Rhea clutched at her seatbelt, every muscle in her body tensing. How did Fowler keep his head during all of this? She could barely tell which way was up right now!

"Hold on!" Fowler shouted needlessly. He did something with the controls and she felt/heard the engine shut down, but the blades continued to move. The ground loomed ever closer.

"Brace!"

Having been through many a safety lecture at MECH, Rhea knew exactly what he meant. Having only a belt at her waist, she bent over as far as she could, buried her face in her knees, wrapped her arms around her thighs and made her feet flat against the floor.

The chopper slammed into the the ravine floor. Rhea's terrified shriek was drowned out by the metal exterior crunching and grinding. After what seemed like an eternity the vehicle finally skidded to a stop, blades finally drifting to a halt.

Even after this Rhea remained in her dazed huddle; it took Fowler shaking her shoulder to get her out of it. She slowly unfolded herself, and surveyed the damage. The controls were burnt out, the walls sported new bends and dents, and the windows and been shattered from the force of the impact. Fowler himself had a few cuts on his face and hands from the tiny bits of glass. She felt something trickling down her hair line, and brought a hand up to feel it. Her fingertips came back with a thin layer of blood, so Fowler wasn't the only one.

"You okay Rhea?" the agent asked her once she sat up. Rhea winced as she finally sat up straight, her muscles aching in protest. But it could have been worse.

"I believe so, all things considered. How about you?" Fowler chuckled at her concern.

"Just a little battered and bruised, takes more than that to bring me down. You good to move?" Rhea nodded. "Alright then, lets get out of this thing."

They took Fowler's door, since the door on Rhea's side looked too crumpled to open. The ranger helped the girl over the seats, and their feet crunched on bits of broken glass as moved. Fowler was the first to hop out of the crash, and turned to help the younger human climb out. Rhea took a look around, and her heart sank when she saw how badly damaged the cargo area was. Her backpack...

"Now we just have to-what the?" the agent started to say something, but cut himself short when he caught sight of a small metal sphere rolling toward them. It rolled in from behind the chopper, and came to rest right by their feet. Rhea noticed it too, and her eyes grew wide.

"Run!" She shouted and bolted in the opposite direction the sphere had come from. She only made it a few steps before three triangular panels on the top of the ball shifted open, and it emitted a bright flash and a high pitched keen. Within moments the two humans fell unconscious onto the hard earth.

LTHB

Ratchet started slightly when the main computer started to flash a green light, accompanied by a low trill. There was a message incoming. Ratchet turned his attention away from the project he was just starting and brought up the signal for identification. It only took a moment, and Ratchet raised a hand to activate his comm.

"Optimus, we're receiving a distress signal from Agent Fowler."

"Does it say why the signal is being sent?" Optimus answered from another part of the base, the green lights already prompting him to head for the main room.

"No message, just the signal. But if it keeps up just a little longer I should be able to determine a location from it."

"Proceed, I will alert the others." the Autobot leader closed the line so the medic could concentrate on his task.

Within a few minutes all the Autobots had been assembled in the main room, along with their curious charges.

"As I'm sure Optimus had informed you, we have received an SOS from Agent Fowler's transport. I managed to find it's most probable origin, but the signal has ceased transmitting. I can't find Agent Fowler's microchip signal either, so there may be something blocking it."

"Are they alright?" "Is it the Cons?" Flare and Arcee asked at the same time. Optimus turned to the two femmes.

"In both cases, we intend to find out. Ratchet, bridge us to coordinates a safe distance from Agent Fowler's last known location. If the Decepticons are involved we will need to asses the situation."

"Good thinking Optimus. Landing on top of a troop of Cons can just ruin your whole day." Miko interjected.

Ignoring the human Ratchet nodded, typed in the coordinates, and pulled on the lever for the ground bridge. The green portal swirled open.

"Autobots, roll out!" Optimus commanded. All did so smoothly and quietly, not wanting to alert any potential enemies to their presence once they emerged. One by one they emerged in the canyon, doing their best to muffle the sounds of their landing. Optimus scanned the area ahead of them, but didn't pick up any Cybertronian signals. Still, he told his soldiers over the comm link to proceed with caution. They kept to the walls as much as they could as they moved forward. They met no resistance, and soon they came to a downed chopper. The scene was eerily quiet. Still sensing no threat, Cons or otherwise, Team Prime approached the crash site.

"Rhea? Agent Fowler?" Flare called out. She hurried over to the fallen craft and bent down to look inside. "There's no sign of them." the worry was heavy in her voice.

"No signs of the Cons or the humans? Doesn't make any sense." Bulkhead shook his head. Arcee nodded.

"And if they aren't here, then where are they?"

LTHB

Rhea was being carried, probably on a stretcher given how straight and flat she was lying. Her movement was restricted by what felt like some sort of binds. There was something covering her head that had the feeling of cloth. There was some sound, footsteps she believed, and they echoed slightly. The temperature was cooler here than when she'd last entered and exited the helicopter. And, based on the size of that stun grenade, Rhea had been out for about an hour. This was the extent of the young woman's knowledge. She may have added that the air smelled different than the desert air she'd last breathed, a little like the air at the Autbobot base actually. However the smell could have been coming from the cloth in front of her nose, so adding that to the list of 'things I know' seemed premature.

She wasn't sure what had become of Agent Fowler, or where she was being moved to. Upon waking up and finding her movement and vision so limited Rhea had laid still for a few minutes trying to get clues as the what was going on; hence that start of the list. She'd tried asking whomever might be around what was going on, and had received a pointed jostle in response. When she worked up the courage to ask where she was being taken she'd received a hard jab to her side, since talking was getting her nowhere she'd gone back to simple observation. Trying to glean all the information she could from her senses helped keep her from panicking.

That's why she was quick to catch the sound of a low moan, and then a voice.

"Grandma... wait, where is this? For the love of every star spangled banner whats-!" The voice was suddenly reduced to indistinguishable grunts. The muffled sounds continued for a minute before a zapping sound cut them off completely. Well, at least now she knew what happened to Agent Fowler.

After that bit of insight things continued as they had been since she'd awoken. She wasn't sure how long it continued like that before something finally changed. The footsteps paused for a minute and she felt herself being lowered to ground. Something tugged at her binds, yet they didn't loosen. There was a minute of people simply moving around before a mechanical grinding noise made her jump. Then she was lifted up, and up.

_'There's no way two people could lift a stretcher this high.'_ She thought to herself. _'What's going on?'_

When the ascension finally ceased she barely had time to register that it seemed a little warmer before she was startled again. Someone grabbed her hand, and something cold and smooth slipped between her skin and her restraints. The mystery person yanked up, and her arm was freed. The moment he or she was done cutting loose the rest of her limbs another pair of hands was pulling her up into a standing position. No, it was actually two pairs of hands, one on each side of her. With hardly a moments pause Rhea was being pulled/dragged to a new location. She could barely keep up with her captor's swift movements, especially when her lack of vision made her constantly trip over the uneven ground. Her 'escorts' firm grip prevented her from ever falling down though. At least, it did until they stopped and something hit the back of her legs. With a startled cry she fell forward, her knees slamming into the hard floor. Even with her kneeling her captors didn't release her biceps. Another brief pause in action, and without warning the hood was pulled off her head.

The small stone room she was in wasn't bright, not by a long shot, but after having nothing but darkness the increase in light made her wince. The walls and floor were of a dark red stone, and there was a collapsable table with a few lamps on it in the very back. That's all Rhea noticed before she saw who was standing before her, and after they did she couldn't make her eyes go anywhere else. She barely registered it when her masked escorts suddenly let go of her and left with the sound of swishing cloth. She was too focused on the man who had motioned them to leave.

Because this was the man she had been dreading seeing ever since she had first awoken at the Autobot base.

Her father.

Silas.

LTHB

"Are you certain Bumblebee?" The Prime's asked of their scout, who was currently kneeling in front of a small cave entrance. The scout gave a few clicks in affirmative. Bumblebee may have been young and less experienced in battle, but he was still a skilled scout. Many bots would not have been able to pick up on the faint human footprints in the desert floor, and fewer still would have been able to follow their trail. The yellow mech had also pointed out that the amount and varying sizes of the prints numbered too many to have been made by only Fowler and Rhea. So the Autobots were now operating under the assumption that the humans had been captured.

"MECH must be at it again." Bulkhead had snarled darkly upon hearing Optimus's conclusion about the humans.

"It is impossible to know for certain that Silas and his followers are behind this, but it is a likely possibility. We should proceed with cation."

"I hope you're not right Bulkhead, it means their both in a lot of danger." Flare shook her head in worry as they started following the scout.

"Well, Fowler is at least." Arcee muttered under her breath. The only one who heard it was Bulkhead, who was standing right next to her. He silently agreed with her implication. He'd learned to tolerate Rhea during her stay. She needed to 'grow a backbone' as the humans say, but he was starting to think that maybe she wasn't as bad as he'd thought. With Miko warming up to her, he'd learned to get over some of his suspicion of the girl, but learning that she'd kept such a big secret from them had heightened it once again. As they approached the tunnel Bee had found, he thought to himself that he wouldn't be at all surprised if he had to use his cannons on some MECH mooks before the day was out. Rhea being involved with Fowler's capture wouldn't have surprised him much either.

Arcee crouched next to her yellow comrade and scanned the tunnel.

"So this is where our kidnappers slunk off to. Not exactly spacious is it?"

"Indeed, I fear that Bumblebee, Bulkhead and myself will not be able to continue forward." Optimus said with a frown.

"But Arcee and I could, so long as the tunnel doesn't get much smaller further on." Flare pointed out, also scanning the hole in the canyon wall. Optimus nodded.

"Arcee, you and Flare will continue and try to find clues to the human's location. Maintain radio contact with us, and do not become separated from each other."

"Got it!" the femmes chorused.

LTHB

Habit is a curious thing. Sometimes one attempts to follow through with a habit even though there is no reason to do so. Such as moving to turn the lights off when you exit a room, only to realize you hadn't turned them on in the first place. Then there were times when a habit you'd thought you'd grown out of would suddenly spring back to life under the right set of circumstances. Rhea was experiencing the latter.

As soon as she saw her father standing in front of her, like not a day had passed since she betrayed MECH, she immediately jumped up and stood at attention. She put her arms rigidly by her sides and looked down slightly, keeping her eyes on his face yet not looking him in the eye. It was the sort of stance she was expected to have after she'd been called out for doing something stupid or dangerous. She didn't bow like she had to Ratchet, that was for apologies, the time for which had long passed. This was the stance of one awaiting the punishment that had been decided.

Silas moved toward her. She didn't dare to move a muscle. She simply braced herself for whatever was coming, but nothing could have prepared her for what happened. Silas quickly stepped forward, knelt down, and put his arms around her.

She stood there rigidly, but this time out of shock. No pain or scolding came, just the embrace. Was her father _hugging_ her? But...her father hadn't hugged her in years.

"Sweetheart, thank goodness you're alright! Were you harmed while being transported? Those idiots under my command, they should have radioed me when they found you, not strung you up like that. I'm sorry for not instructing them better. So you are okay?" Rhea gaped at him as he pulled back to look at her, placing his hands on her shoulders. _Sorry_? Silas was _sorry_?

She murmured and affirmative, and nodded slowly and uncertainly.

"That's a great relief. I've been working even harder to find the Autobots since they took you, I was so worried." Her father gave her shoulders a quick comforting squeeze, and actually smiled at her.

He'd been worried about her? He'd actually looked for her?

"Why?" The child finally found her voice. Silas's face fell.

"Rhea, after you left, I did a lot of thinking. I realized how awful it must have been for you all these years, first having Teresa die and then me being so distant and demanding with my work and with you." Rhea turned her face away from him at the mention of her mother, but he used one gloved hand take her chin and guide her face back to him. "But I never meant for any of that to drive you away. If I'd realized what the training was doing to you, what I was doing to you, I would have changed things sooner."

"You hurt me, both of us." Rhea said, though it held very little accusation. It was a simple statement of fact. Silas sighed, bowing his head repentantly. The dim light cast shadows over his face.

"I know, and now I really understand how wrong that was. When your mother left it was by accident. But when you left, completely of your own accord, it was the first time a realized how much MECH has gotten in the way of our relationship. How much things have changed. You're the only true family I have now, I was such a fool not to see how valuable that was."

Tears were streaming down Rhea's face by now, she couldn't help it. This is what she'd been trying to make happen since she'd joined MECH. She'd spent years waiting for her Dad to come back to his senses, and it seemed like all that time had been for nothing. Now it was finally happening.

"Do you really mean that?" she whispered, hardly able to believe everything her father was saying to her. Yet he sounded so sad, so sincere, and she wanted to believe him so badly.

"Yes sweetheart, I do. I know I don't deserve it, but do you think you could ever forgive me?"

A feeling of great warmth welled up in Rhea's chest. With a cry that was half way between a sob and a happy shout she jumped forward and returned his hug. Her father hadn't shown her such affection in years, it would be stupid not to take advantage of this. Silas stroked the back of her head, and chuckled lightly.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Will it be like it was before? Before MECH became...such a big part of our lives?"

"I'll do my best Rhea. I've become smarter in my old age, I'm sure I can find a better way of balancing our work and our play."

Something about that struck Rhea, _our_ work? But the thought was pushed away in her blind happiness.

Her father stood, and kept a hand on her shoulder as he walked out of the small chamber. She leaned into him as he lifted a tan curtain that separated their alcove from the rest of the rocky cave. She didn't bother to ask where they were going, just enjoyed the pure joy radiating throughout her. The father and daughter walked down the corridor of stone, passing a few soldiers and indented spaces that were too small to be used as 'rooms'. She did notice another cloth as they passed it, probably another nook used as work space in whatever makeshift base this was. Shortly after passing it though, she heard something that made her stop. It was a voice, an familiar voice, Fowler's voice.

Reality slapped her like a branch that had been bent back. She'd forgotten Agent Fowler had been taken with her, how could she forget something like that?

"Is something wrong Rhea?" Silas asked when her noticed her pause.

"I heard Agent Fowler."

"Ah yes, he's been less cooperative than you've been. Hopefully the soldiers won't have to use too much force." Her father said dismissively. He squeezed her shoulder again, and made to continue, but she stayed rooted in place. The leader turned and gave a quizzical look.

The young blonde almost said it was nothing and moved to follow him. She didn't want to pursue this, mainly because she now realized she may not like the answers she received. Silas's words and actions had been so perfect, she didn't want to deny them. Yet at the same time she couldn't completely silence a voice in the back of her mind that told her this was all wrong. Along with the voice came images of Stellar Flare and Optimus Prime, and for some reason that increased the guilt she felt for her desire to stay in her blissful dream. But she'd had enough dreaming while she worked at MECH. She had to say something.

"What's going to happen to him?" she asked of her father. He hesitated, but spoke as lovingly as he had back in the first alcove.

"We'll treat him as gently as we can. We wouldn't want him to hurt himself, or anyone else for that matter." He moved his hand to the back of her neck and tried to get her to come forward again, but she didn't move. He hadn't said they would let him go.

"Dad, back there you said 'our work', like we would be doing it together. But you won't make me work for MECH again, will you Dad?" Silas frowned, and finally faced her completely.

"Well, I won't force you. But I assumed you would want to, you get so twitchy you get when you don't have something to keep you busy." He said knowingly, and he was right. She did like having work to do, but not that kind, not anymore.

"I'd really prefer not to." she murmured timidly. Disappointment flickered across her father's face, but was soon replaced by an understanding smile.

"That's perfectly understandable, sweetie. You've been through a lot, you'll need time to recover." He reached down and ruffled her hair. Her stomach did a little flip, it was just the sort of thing he used to do. "Come on, let's get you back home."

"Father, I-I don't want to go back to base." The blonde stammered. Silas raised his eyebrows in surprise. She was a little shocked by the boldness of it herself, if a stammer could be bold.

"Did you forget something in the chopper? I'm afraid the area is too dangerous for us to go back."

"That's not what I meant. I don't want to work at MECH again. Everyone will still be mad at me about leaving."

"I'll talk to them."

"And finally make it public that I'm your daughter?" The hope in her voice betrayed the accusation she tried to make. Silas frowned.

"What's the real reason you're saying this child?" A familiar note of danger entering his voice. That almost made back down right then and there, but she closed her eyes, steeled herself, and leveled with him.

"I don't want to go back to MECH because I've never belonged there. I didn't then and I won't now. I can't even begin to describe how happy your words made me, but you haven't said your goals have changed. So my original reason for leaving still stands. I want to go my own way now. You can leave me hear for someone to find or drop me off in some city, but I promise that I won't tell anyone about you no matter what happens. I promised I'd keep your secrets, and I'll keep to that. But I can't go back to base. I love you, but I just can't go back to that kind of life. I hope you can understand." Silence. Rhea opened her eyes slowly, needing to see what Silas thought. His thunderous expression awakened every danger instinct she had.

"That's a pity. I had such high hopes for you." The hand on the back of her neck turned and grabbed her braid. Without another word he started dragging her down the corridor, pointedly ignoring her struggling.

LTHB

Fowler groggily came to his senses for the second time that day, actually the third time if you counted when he first woke up that morning. Working with the Autobots directly, the paperwork that always followed and his other various duties at HQ made it so he didn't get a whole lot of shut eye.

He opened his eyes. At least he could see now, whatever had been over his head before had been removed. He shifted his head so he could take a look around, this was definitely not his Grammy's kitchen.

He was in a dreary little stone room made of reddish brown stone, and he had company. Two MECH soldiers stood guard over him, identifiable by their charactaristic goggles and ski style masks. The sound of the agent moving caused the shorter of them to turn around.

"Prisoner's up." He informed his comrade.

"Convenient timing, the transport should be nearly ready by now." The taller one managed to give Fowler a pointed look, even with the goggles. "So long as he doesn't start getting uppity again we won't have to give him another jolt."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Fowler muttered. He looked down at himself. He wasn't on a strecther anymore, he was pretty sure he remembered that from the last time he'd woken up, but he was lying down with his hands tied. He rubbed his wrists in irritation.

"Hey, bug eyes! I got a question." The shorter guard turned partially around.

"What?" his voice betrayed his annoyance at the nick name.

"Nothin much, just wondering where that transport a yours might be goin. And if it's just me that's the guest of honor, or if the kid is somewhere around here too."

"Cargo doesn't need to know where it's being shipped." He said shortly. Fowler managed to bite back a frustrated growl.

"And the girl?"

"Cargo doesn't need to know what else is in the shipment either." Shorty answered again.

"Enough chatting, we should get him down there." Tall one cut them off. He grabbed the middle aged man by the arm and forcefully pulled him up. Fowler groaned and swayed back a little, so short one had to help out a little.

"Not as young as you used to be are you Gramps?" The shorter one jeered at him. Fowler huffed, but paused.

"I don't suppose the 'cargo' is allowed to ask a favor." When both guards simply looked at him he continued. "Could one of you adjust these binds? They put a lot of pressure on my joints." Shorty snickerd, and Tall sighed. He really wanted to shock the older man again, but they'd already had to do that twice within a short time period. Doing it too many times could really hurt him, which would be detrimental to getting coherent information out of him.

"If it'll keep you from complaining I'll take a look at it." Fowler turned to Tall and offered his bound wrists. Shorty stayed behind him, just what he was hoping for.

Just as Tall touched his wrists the agent threw himself backwards. He rammed right into Shorty, the agents weight pushing the soldier into the wall. Tall swung at Fowler, and managed to land a solid hit to the agent's gut. Fortunately the agent had developed a good amount of padding in that area, so it didn't set Fowler back much. A kick sent Tall sprawling. Before Fowler could go Shorty got back up and hit him from behind. The agent managed to throw him off, then laced his fingers together and put all his strength into an underhand swing. His bound hands caught the guard on the chin. It sent him tumbling backwards again, this time he hit the back of his head on the rock wall. This time Shorty stayed down, but Tall was just getting up. Fowler rammed into him, pinning the guard between his shoulder and the opposite wall. Tall tried to push him back, but before he could succeed the agent butted his own head against his enemy's. Tall's head snapped back and hit the wall. His eyes rolled back, and when Fowler stepped away Tall slumped down and lay limp.

"Young men ought to respect their elders. If Grandma were here she would have had your hides for being so rough and disrespectful. And I'm not that old!" Fowler muttered as he searched for something to cut his binds. They had been asking for this anyway. What kind of idiot guard tied the prisoner's hands in front of him instead of behind?

The middle-aged man quickly found a small knife stashed in one of Tall's pockets, and used it to cut himself free. He wondered why neither of the guards had been carrying guns. Maybe there was something about this cave that made firing guns inside of it a bad idea.

There wasn't any place to hide the unconscious bodies of his guards, so he'd have to move quickly if he wanted to find the way out before they were discovered. Fowler peered cautiously around the cloth that made the 'door'. He couldn't see anyone, but he could hear something. It was a sort of shuffling sound, intermixed with a few grunts. Curious, Fowler came out a little further, and discovered that there was another part of the shipment.

At the far end of the stone corridor stood Silas and Rhea. Well, Silas stood and Rhea wiggled. The leader of MECH held the young woman's hair in one hand, and both of her wrists in another. Despite her writhing Silas seemed to need very little effort to keep her in place. He said something to her with a stern face that made her stop for a moment, but then her struggling increased. Silas shook his head, and finally dragged the girl around the corner and out of sight. Snarling, Fowler moved all the way out of the room and started after them. No way was he leaving anyone behind.

Before he could reach the turn he heard cries of pain, but from behind him. They were followed by a sound that had come to make him very hopeful, small but powerful engines. A blue motorcycle zoomed down into view, followed closely by a red orange ride. The agent had to press himself against the wall to keep from being bowled over when the blue stopped near him and red-orange sped past him.

"Get on!" Arcee's urgent voice came out of the blue bike. He did so without hesitation, and Arcee put the metal to the pedal as soon as he was stable. The two reached the corner just in time to see Flare come to her charges aid.

Silas and Rhea had been standing at an angle in the corridor, and Flare used this to her full advantage. She sped toward the pair. Upon seeing the transformer Silas released his hold on his daughter's hair and went for his radio. Before he could reach it Flare swung her frame around. Her back tire connected with the man's body and sent him into the wall.

He almost pulled Rhea with him, since he had kept her hands in a tight grip. But Flare's stunt had put herself between them, so when Silas had been sent flying his momentum had pulled Rhea onto Flare's seat. Flare waited for the girl make herself upright, but she remained sprawled on her stomach when she caught sight of her father's still form.

"Dad?" Rhea shouted in alarm.

Flare revved her engine urgently, but the girl just looked between her father and her guardian.

"COME ON!" both femmes shouted. At the same time Silas stirred. It was enough to break Rhea out of her stupor, and she swung herself into Flare's seat. Fowler looked back at Rhea as they sped through the cave, and she looked back until Silas could no longer be seen.

"Hold on tight!" the blue bike warned. Fowler bent down low and gripped the handles firmly, keeping himself in place as they whipped around another turn in the cave.

"_Ratchet! Can you get a lock on us?"_ Arcee asked over her com.

"_Yes, but the bridge will be most stable ahead of you at the cave's surface entrance. I'll keep track of you and open it when you reach that point."_

"_Affirmative."_ Arcee cut the communication line and said told the others what the plan was. It took only a few minutes for them to come in sight of the entrance, but they weren't the only ones who were there. Just outside of the cave entrance they could see a covered dark green truck surrounded by MECH soldiers.

_'I guess 'cargo' doesn't need much style either.'_ Fowler thought to himself.

"Arcee?" Flare prompted as the soldiers heard the engines and brought weapons to bear.

"Keep going, we're almost there." Arcee said more confidently than she felt. It went against a lot of instinct to go speeding toward an armed enemy without her blasters.

Shot's were fired. Fowler and Rhea made themselves as small as they could, pressing into the bike frames. If the bots had been in robot mode they both would have been gritting their denta.

They sped closer and closer, but the soldiers held their ground and continued to fire. Suddenly a loud grating _**crack**_ was heard over the sound of the gunfire. One of the soldiers in front lowered his gun and quickly ordered the others to do the same. Now, finally, the green portal the escapees had been waiting for opened up just in front of the group of soldiers. The two bots sped through to safety before the soldiers could change their minds about the ceasefire.

The two femmes slammed on their breaks to avoid running into the Autobots gathered around in the main room.

"Arcee! You okay?" Jack called out and ran up to his partner. Fowler clambered off the seat and the boy's guardian transformed to robot mode.

"I'm fine Jack, just a few cuts and scratches. Ratchet can have them fixed in no time." Jack looked relieved and placed a hand on her leg.

"You appear to have been successful. Well done." Optimus congratulated. Arcee glanced over at her friend, and saw that Flare was just now switching to robot mode. Since she was focused on a very shaken Rhea, Arcee decided to go ahead and answer herself.

"Thanks you sir. We managed to get out without having to create many casualties." Here she shifted her gaze to Ratchet, who was still by the controls. "That was cutting it pretty close though. We almost had to run down a troop of MECH soldiers." He just grumbled that he couldn't be omnicient and then ordered both Flare and Arcee to the med bay. Arcee left with a nod to her leader, and Flare gave a quick pat to Rhea before following. Optimus watched them go, and then knelt down to speak to the man who was still dusting himself off.

"Thanks for the assist Prime, but how about we avoid making this a tradition." Fowler said humorously. Optimus nodded.

"Agreed. Can shed some light on the details of your capture?"

So Fowler told him about the missile chasing them and making them crash; thankfully this he thought to send out a distress call a little sooner this time around. He also detailed what little he could remember from his short wake up before the stone room and how he had taken out the guards before the cavalry arrived.

"If you want more information on the cave part of it you should ask Rhea. It looked like she'd been awake longer than I had." Optimus looked up from the agent to find the young woman. She was still standing where Flare had left her, and the children were all talking with her. She looked distracted though, and Jack and Raf looked a little uncertain. He would have to question her later.

"Do you have any idea how MECH could have found out about your travel route?" Optimus questioned further. Fowler grimaced.

"As much as I hate to admit it, we may have a leak. Ever since the incident with Lazerbeak we've been much more careful about the land and airspace along my route. We try to keep people out of the area, and even switch up the route now and then. I'm not sure how Silas could have gotten close enough to have that missile ready or people to cart us away."

"Considering the scans we did while searching for you, it seems that MECH found a pathway in the rock. It had a small entrance in the canyon below your current route, and let out at the surface a good distance away. Perhaps when Silas found out about your route he was able to discover this passage and lie in wait for you." Optimus theorized. Fowler nodded thoughtfully.

"It's a possibility. Depending on how long Silas knew about the passage he may have had the time to enlarge the passage. I'll have to let HQ know that not even a small-"

"MIKO SHUT UP!" Rhea's normally quiet voice reverberated throughout the room. Everyone still present stared at her with varying degrees of shock, but right now the girl didn't seem to care.

"I don't want to talk about it! I don't want to tell you about what happened between me and Silas, or the escape, or how many soldiers Flare and Arcee scraped!" In her anger Rhea had advanced on Miko, who stepped back in surprise at the younger girl's intensity. The boy's stood back, unsure if they should try intervening. Though she stopped yelling the anger remained, and a note of pleading entered her voice as well.

"This has been the most confusing and exhausting day I've had in a long time, alright? Today I've been interrogated, broke the one rule I made to myself before coming here, was in a helicopter that was shot down, had to deal with being captured, and my father not long after. And when the helicopter went down it took my Teddy bear with it!" Her voice broke a little on the last sentence.

She looked around at everyone's shocked expressions. She bowed her head, and her body slumped. She suddenly felt even more drained than before.

"I'm sorry, I just, I can't do this right now." She quickly scurried out and made her way to her old room. When she made it there she immediately collapsed onto the bed. How could she still be so blind when it came to her father? What was wrong with her?

Her eyes locked onto the nightstand by her bed. It used to have the picture of her mother on it, the same picture she had packed next to her bear.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p>"<em>Was anyone <span>all<span> evil? That couldn't be possible. I've heard even Hitler was nice to his dogs._ ~Tobias, Animorphs, by KA Applegate.

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><p>Fowler had left after talking with Optimus about their possible security breach a bit more. Optimus wanted to have Ratchet take a look at the man's injuries, but Fowler insisted that the medical personnel back at HQ could handle it. Since he no longer had a mode of transport the Autobots simply bridged the man back. The bots had originally offered to bridge him to and from the base for every meeting, but Fowler had declined. He felt it made him too dependent on the bots, plus he initially didn't trust the strange alien technology. He eventually got past his fear of the ground bridge, but still preferred his chopper. Until they could secure a new route and helicopter for him though, he would have to live with the ground bridge.<p>

Life at the base became pretty quiet after the excitement of rescuing Agent Fowler and Rhea, in both good ways and bad ways. Decepticon activity was down, the bots only having a few minor skirmishes with their age-old foes, and there were no major accidents or equipment malfunctions. But the atmosphere at the base seemed more tense than before.

Rhea did not emerge from her room for the rest of that day, even when Ratchet demanded that she come out for a medical examination. June was able to come in with her bag and get the girl's cuts cleaned up, thankfully there wasn't any major physical damage done. Psychological damage was another story though. She stopped confining herself to her room after the first day, but avoided contact with everyone on base. She only spoke when spoken too, and tried to draw as little attention to herself as possible. She didn't linger in any room where the kids or Autobots were hanging out, instead moving through them as quickly and quietly as she could.

The longest conversation she had during that time was when Fowler came back to ask her a few questions about her own experiences during capture. She admitted to him that just before the missile had been launched she was starting to find the canyon familiar, and now remembered why. Before she left MECH she had seen Silas pouring over several different physical and topographical maps of the same place, the area Fowler passed through on his way back to head quarters. Unfortunately she didn't know if that also meant he had information on the location of the Autobot base; she only knew that Silas had studied the area for at least a month. When Fowler asked her what had happened before he saw her and Silas together she simply said that her father had tried to convince her to switch sides again, and she refused. She also refused to say anymore about it. Fowler didn't push the issue, but also said he would soon return with a few things for her to look at.

Save for that one occasion, she shunned all interaction with those at the base. She even avoided Flare.

The red-orange femme had tried to approach Rhea several times, but most of the time the girl left before Flare had a chance to say anything. When the femme finally did pin her down Rhea acted strangely defensive, even snapping at Flare a few times before running off again. The morning after that little incident Flare woke up from recharge and found that a small slip of paper had been pushed under her door. She picked it up delicately, and found a message printed on it.

_I'm sorry about yesterday. I haven't forgotten._

_ ~Rhea_

Flare's charge was really confusing her. It made her consider Arcee's words to her even more.

LTHB

The art teacher, Miko decided, probably wasn't going to like her project very much. Which was a shame, since art was on of the few classes she did well in. She sat hunched over on the old green couch as she rifled through her pile of colored paper, pencils, glue, and other various art supplies. Ms. Maxwell had told them to put emphasis on complimentary colors in this project, but Miko just wasn't convinced that violet and yellow went well together. If she was going to have purple she was going to pair it with green. That looked a lot nicer to her, and an artist should follow their inner muse. At least that's what Ms. Maxwell had told them at the beginning of the year, though Miko suspected the teacher was beginning to regret phrasing it like that.

Raf and Ratchet were around too, though she didn't pay a lot of attention to them. Ratchet had groaned when he saw her pulling out all her art supplies. Doc bot still didn't like it when she or any of the other kids brought homework to the base with them, especially after all his science projects got bashed by the school. Thankfully Raf was distracting him. He was supposed to be working on homework too, but instead was trying to get Ratchet into a conversation. It was something about 'solid holograms', and how much energon was required to keep one running.

Miko picked up the stack of colored paper. She flipped through the spectrum of colors, letting all the raw possibilities float through her mind. Maybe she could get away with purple and green if she chose a yellowish green, that would be close to complimentary right? Plus, Ms. Maxwell was the one teacher that actually liked her, she'd probably be okay with it.

"Hello Miko."

Miko stopped and looked up in surprise to see Rhea standing at the edge of the couch. The strawberry blonde seemed uncertain about being there; she hunched her shoulders like she was trying to hide within herself. Yet there she stayed, waiting for Miko to reply.

"Hey Rhea, what's up?" the transfer student made herself sound casual.

"I wanted to apologize for yelling at you when we got back a while ago." They younger girl bowed. "Such an extreme reaction wasn't called for, and I'm sorry." Rhea looked anxious as she straightened, but Miko smiled and waved it off.

"Aw, no biggie. That was ages ago anyway." Rhea hesitated, but soon returned her friend's smile.

"Thanks Miko." her eyes drifted over to where Ratchet and Raf were talking by the main computer. "I guess I should be going." Rhea turned to leave, but paused, and then turned back around. "Wait, may I use some of that paper?" the blonde pointed at the stack Miko was still holding. The raven haired girl shrugged, and flopped the pile onto the cushion next to her.

"Sure, take your pick. I can always get more." Rhea knelt down and picked out a few sheets each of dark green, creamy white and sunset orange. She shifted her weight like she was about to get up and go, but hesitated again.

"Miko, could you let the others know that I'm sorry?" she mumbled cautiously. Miko quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Sorry for what?"

"For not telling them about Silas and I in the first place, and for not thanking them for coming after me and Fowler." Miko frowned at the request and folded her arms.

"Playing messenger isn't my thing. Ratch is right over there, you can go tell him yourself."

Rhea looked over at the resident medic warily. She had thought of apologizing to the bots herself, but had quickly abandoned the idea after some of the looks she got from them. No, she couldn't talk to any of the bots yet. Of course, she didn't know how long alien robotic organisms tended to hold a grudge, so maybe she could try it. But what if they still were and didn't want to listen to her? How could she gauge how each one would react?

"Miko, what made you not get mad at me for keeping secrets like that? How are you not worried about it?" Rhea suddenly asked. The raven haired girl shrugged again.

"I don't get why every else is so worried about it. What, do they think you're suddenly going to become all creepy and ruthless like Silas? Please, it took you almost a week just to be comfortable looking Optimus in the optics!"

"So you're not worried or angry that I lied?" Rhea asked in disbelief.

"Well, maybe just a little mad at the lying part, but I can get why you did. I don't talk about my parents a lot either, cuz I'm nothing like them." She threw the younger girl a conspiratorial look. "It's like we're the same breed. When our apples fell out of the tree, we rolled down a hill!"

Rhea, not being familiar with the saying 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.', was not sure what to make of Miko's reference. So she merely nodded and stood up to leave. As she turned away Miko rolled her eyes and grabbed Rhea's arm. The exchange student yanked Rhea back, making her stumble and fall onto the couch.

"Will you relax already? I promise no one is going to go berserk if they see you in here, besides, projects are always more fun when you do them together." She grinned and splayed the stack of colored paper until she was holding a rainbow in her hand. Rhea shifted anxiously, she wasn't so sure about no one 'going berserk'. However, she knew for a fact that Miko could get really intense about this sort of thing, so she figured it was less hassle to do as told. As Rhea inspected the paper she'd selected Miko continued gathering everything she'd just decided to use. Miko also proved to be an effective multi-tasker, since she continued the conversation as well.

"I just don't get why everyone is blowing this out of proportion. Kids aren't copies of their parents. And what was with the tense attitudes and worry when you left with Fowler? I know everyone was surprised that it all happened so quick, but we'd see you again. Or at least talk to you."

"And what if they hadn't let me contact you?" Rhea asked as she lay the paper on the table and started to fold it.

"Of course they would, even criminals get one phone call. At least they do on TV."

Rhea always had trouble deciding if Miko's unique outlook on life was a positive or a negative. It seemed rather situational. Before she could think of a reply, Raf walked up. Upon seeing him Rhea realized that the conversation with Ratchet must be over, and her eyes darted to him. He seemed to have gone back to the screens and didn't notice the extra human. Rhea sighed, and allowed herself to relax a little.

Raf was pleased with himself. He'd managed to talk to Ratchet about upgrading Bee's hologram without the medic getting angry. Of course he hadn't mentioned that his guardian was actually thinking about doing it, just that Bee had mentioned the possibility to him. Still, Ratchet had quite a bit of information on the subject, and even seemed interested in the hypothetical project. He supposed even Ratchet got the itch to do something creative now and then.

After asking Miko if he could borrow some of her supplies, and saying a quick hello to Rhea, he sat down on the floor and started working on his own art project. He looked up from his work when Miko delightfully exclaimed that Rhea was using the paper to make origami. He smiled as the two started chatting about the different forms they knew how to make, and Miko told her about new ones she'd recently discovered. It was nice to see the two of them getting along. Raf had been a little worried about the two of them since that fight, but seemed like Miko had a hard time holding grudge for very long.

He'd also heard a bit of their conversation before they'd noticed him coming. He'd thought it better not to say anything though, he didn't want the girls to think he was eavesdropping. He agreed with Miko that kids weren't copies of parents, but he also knew it was more complicated than that. His own siblings were very diverse, but they still shared a lot with each other and his parents. Some had the same sense of humor, similar values, close personalities or shared little habits. No matter how different family members seemed from each other people couldn't spend so much time together, share a history together, without being like each other in some ways. He was willing to bet that even Miko shared some traits with her parents, she just didn't recognize it.

But that didn't mean they were all destined for the same path. His oldest siblings had all followed different paths once they graduated from high school or college. His sister Sofia had started a plant nursery, she had a knack for both flora and business. It still amazed him that she could tell the difference between so many plants and remember all the scientific names for them. His brother Mateo had decided to become a miner along with his cousin, Pedro. Lucas, his oldest brother still at home, wanted a job where he could work with kids, Pilar seemed to flip-flop on career choice every week, and none of his brothers or sisters had taken to computers like Raf had. In the end they all chose very different kinds of life, and with the younger ones like him there was still plenty of time left to change their minds. They all still shared a lot, and were very close, but they each decided for themselves where their lives would go. Eventually, he, Miko, Jack, and Rhea, would each have to do that same.

The conversation about origami had died down after Miko promised to lend Rhea a book she had on how to make all sorts of different shapes, including a dragon. It was one of the few books she had that wasn't forced on her for school.

Jack had joined their little group a few minutes ago, having just gotten back from a ride with Arcee. At the sound of the engine Rhea had ducked down in front of the couch, Miko rolled her eyes at that. Arcee was there just long enough to let Jack off and exchange a few words with Ratchet before she sped off on an assignment. Rhea unfurled herself as the rumble of the engine faded, just in time for Jack to reach the top step. He stared at Rhea for a moment, surprised to see her there. He looked like he was about to say something, but at the last moment decided against it. Instead he rubbed the back of his head and said a quick hello to everyone before settling down to do his own work.

As they worked in silence, Miko remembered that there was one thing she'd been meaning to ask the former MECH member sitting next to her. But she didn't want her to have another freak out, so she approached it with more caution than she usually did.

"Hey Rhea, can I ask you a question about MECH?" Miko ventured. The other girl stiffened.

"As long as it isn't about Silas." she replied.

"K. Is there anyone else like you at MECH?" Miko let her voice go back to casual. Rhea frowned in confusion.

"What do you mean 'like me'?"

"Are there any other kids, or you know, nice people?"

"Of course there are nice people!" Rhea said in mild shock. "There aren't any other kids, but there are nice people. Doctor Minerva is the head of the medical staff, and she always treated everyone fairly. She got a little obsessed with her work sometimes, but she was always very pleasant to work under. She wasn't the only one either."

"Easy, I believe you, but I don't get _why_. I can get why you were there, you didn't have a choice, but why would any good person who isn't crazy want to work for Silas and MECH? They weren't forced, right?"

"Well, as far as I know most of MECH's people are there on a volunteer basis." Rhea said slowly. She now understood Miko's question and confusion, she herself experienced it many times over the years.

"Right, so how can they be good people if they volunteered?" the raven haired girl pressed. Jack and Raf leaned in a little closer, becoming curious themselves.

"I'm not sure I have the right answer to that. Some of the soldiers are like Silas in many ways, and definitely don't classify as good. But nothing is ever that simple. I think some joined because they believe the current governments needs to go about things differently or aren't doing what they should be, and they think MECH will change that. Silas can be very persuasive. Others come because MECH allows them to do work that no one else will. As for why they stay after they are exposed to the less pleasant aspects of MECH...I don't know." Rhea's voice grew sad near the end of her speech. She had known her mother had stayed out of fear for Rhea's safety, and had also hoped to see Silas returned to his old self. But many of the others who had joined, who Rhea considered kind or at least decent, didn't have anything for MECH to loom over them. She didn't know why they didn't try to leave once things at MECH turned out to be different than they had expected.

"I would suspect it is for similar reasons that many good mechs joined the Decepticons at the start of the war."

All the kids stiffened in surprise and looked to the red and white bot that had spoken. Ratchet's head turned toward them, as if feeling their collective gaze.

"The war didn't start out of nothing. There were real problems on Cybertron: corruption in the government, inequalities pitting classes against one another. It's not that surprising that some citizens sided with Megatron, believing that he could put an end to such problems." Here the medic's gaze settled pointedly on Rhea. "Megatron may be a touch crazy, but he too can be very persuasive."

"That doesn't really answer the question though." Jack joined the conversation after there was a moment of silence. "Why did they stick around after the war started?" Ratchet turned all the way toward them with a low rumble, memories of those early days flooding through his processor.

"Like Rhea mentioned, some stayed because they had truly come to believe in what Megatron was preaching. They believed his way was the only way, and would let none tell them otherwise. However, I believe others went through with Megatron's plans not because they wanted to, but because they were ordered too."

"Authority is a powerful force in military settings, especially for those mechs who had been strictly trained to follow orders. The fact that Megatron and his officers authorized attacks and violence seemed to give them automatic justification. Those acting out the orders told themselves they had no choice in the matter. They were merely extensions of authority, which meant they were not personally responsible. They believed they were only doing what needed to be done, even when following through with those orders meant great harm to themselves or others."

"But, if there were good ones too, then wouldn't they stop eventually? Wouldn't they find something that they just couldn't do no matter how high the order?" Miko was being unusually attentive, her mind often wandered off when Ratchet started one of his lectures. This one was different, there was deep emotion behind every word the medic spoke. It made him sound like Optimus.

"That was the case with certain individuals. Those Decepticons who managed to survive the punishment for disobeying sometimes fled and joined the Autobots, or became neutral. But once one has taken that first step of obeying when normally they may have resisted, the pressure to continue is very powerful. With each atrocity they committed the need to justify their actions increased, and when such things started to become expected and routine the chance of resistance rapidly dwindled."

"Why would routine have that big an influence?" Raf wondered aloud.

"Because once something becomes routine you no longer make a decision about it, you just do it. It's like an assembly line. Once one gets into a routine one no longer has to think about the end result, one is simply placing a part into a machine. There is no step where moral implications are expected to arise, nor is there any opportunity to do so. And as each member performs their role, they assure each other that everything they are doing is completely normal and correct."

"But even then some are not completely submerged in what they are doing. That requires...I guess the closest translation would be 'dehumanization'. The victims of one's actions are completely stripped of the need to have any morals applied to them whatsoever. The victims are no longer seen as individuals, but as a group. Megatron and his officers were very good at subtlety encouraging the thought that certain groups were not worthy of any form of mercy. They made it so the systematic destruction of those groups was seen as desireable. It's very similar to routine in that way, the concerns that may have kept mechs from committing violent crimes began to reinforce the crimes instead. The only way they could justify what they and others were doing to the victims, the only way they could exact meaning from it, was by convincing themselves that the victims deserved to be rooted out. It's a vicious cycle, and could turn many a good bot into cold killers."

As he finished the room fell into silence, each human absorbing all the medic had said. Ratchet turned back to the computer when he got no response.

Unbeknownst to them, Jack and Raf were having very similar thoughts. Both had been treated to stories about the battles the Autobots had been in, often at Miko's request. Though it had been at different points, both had wondered about the group referred to as Vehicons. Did they have any individuality, or were they truly just drones? Did they feel pain or sadness when one of their comrades was offlined? Raf had never asked Bumblebee, he was too shy and didn't want to belittle anything his guardian did. Jack had other reasons for never asking Arcee. He could see the depth of pain in her optics when she talked of her lost partners, and the rage at those who had caused their deaths. He would never insinuate that their deaths were not a tragedy, or that the Cons didn't deserve a lot of what they got. The Bots would have accepted peace a long time ago had the Cons been willing to stop fighting for control. The Autobots had to stop them and protect other planets, because there was no one else who would. Yet a small part of him wondered if there might be a Con like Arcee out there. One who had lost many comrades to the Bots and burned with a similar passion and sadness. He knew what his guardian did was necessary, no matter how unpleasant it became. But it was still a humbling thought.

But out of all of them, it was Miko who broke the silence.

"But that would never happen with the Bots. You guys really are doing what needs to be done, so the Bots don't have any of that, right?"

Ratchet didn't answer right away, and he didn't turn away from the computer when he eventually did. "Dehumanization of the enemy is common in any war situation."

Miko's face fell and her pigtails drooped. Then she too became lost in thought. With everyone mulling over Ratchet's words no one noticed when a certain blonde girl got up and returned to her room with her half completed origami.

Rhea had stayed quiet throughout Ratchet's speech, drinking in his words. So many little things in her world suddenly made sense. She knew about the effects of routine Ratchet had described, they often kept her from asking about her own orders. Her only concern was to get the job done right, and make her father happy. She could easily picture others at MECH falling deeply into the cycle Ratchet described. Now that she knew about it, she could even see it in herself. She had never liked living at MECH, but while she was with them she hadn't felt very guilty about her part in it. After all, she had mostly done manual labor and a bit of tech support. At MECH such things were grunt work, which anyone could have done. But just what had her grunt work been supporting all those years? Which soldiers had she freed from cleaning duty, allowing them to work on MECH's priorities? She hadn't even thought to ask such questions until Flare came along.

A soft knock came from the door, interrupting her reflection. The girl opened the door, and discovered that someone had noticed her leave after all.

Jackson Darby stood in the door frame, looking sheepish. Compared to Raf and Miko she hadn't spent a lot of quality time with Jack. Partly because they each enjoyed hanging out with their respective partners, and partly because she wasn't entirely sure how to act toward him. Out of their little band of humans Jack was unquestionably the leader, so at first she tried treating him like she would a superior officer at MECH. That seemed to make him uncomfortable, but _Rhea_ felt uncomfortable treating a leader like a normal colleague.

"Hey Rhea, I need to talk to you about something. Well, Arcee wanted to talk to you about it, but I convinced her to let me do it."

"That's good. What did you want to talk about?"

"She, we, wanted to know if you had anything to do with MECH kidnapping my Mom with Airachnid." Rhea's eyes widened.

"Silas used a spider to kidnap June?" she asked in disbelief. Jack face palmed.

"No, there's a Decepticon named Airachnid. She teamed up with Silas to get back at me for destroying her ship, and to get a crack at Arcee. MECH just wanted Arcee, but they knew taking my Mom would get both of us there." Rhea nodded her understanding. She wished she'd known that before leaving MECH, she could have tried setting up a program to wipe any information about the Darby's off the main computer.

"Jack, please believe me. I had no idea. I wasn't a part of that mission, so no one told me about it. And...I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry for something you weren't a part of?" Jack asked in confusion.

"I was a part of it, just not knowingly. I see that now. And I meant sorry for everything else. I'm sorry for not telling you about my true connections to MECH, I'm sorry for all the hurt that they've caused you, I'm sorry for everything. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know." To her surprise, Jack smiled at her.

"It's good to hear you say that. I'm sure it'll make Arcee feel better too."

"Could you pass the apology along to her? I considered trying myself, but each time I see her she looks like she wants to shoot me." Jack snorted.

"Yeah, I'll have to talk to her about that."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note<strong>

Not a lot of action in this chapter, but there will be a bit in the next one if everything goes as planned.

Also, I hope it didn't sound to preachy while Ratchet was talking near the end. We talked about that subject in one of my college classes. I found it really fascinating, and thought it applied well to this story.

Also, the bit about Raf having a cousin named Pedro is a shout out to one of Foxbear's stories. I highly suggest them, Foxbear is an excellent author with lots of good character insight.

Thanks for reading!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p>"<em>Men who weren't there call it the Battle of the Shining Walls," he said abruptly. "Men who were, call it the Blood Snow. No more. They know it was a battle. On the morning of the first day, I led nearly five hundred men. Kandori, Saldaeans, Domani. By evening on the third day, half were dead or wounded. Had I made different choices, some of those dead would be alive. And others would be dead in their places. In war, you say a prayer for your dead and ride on, because there is always another fight over the next horizon." ~<em>Lan Mandragoran, New Spring, Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan

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><p>Such behavior would never have been tolerated at MECH. That was part of the reason she kept up her avoidance strategy for so long. She had better reasons for ending it: the fact that she had to face the bots eventually, the reassurance of having the kids accept her and the realization that her mother would never have approved of her behavior. Plus there were all the chaotic noises coming from the main room.<p>

Rhea stepped into a whirlwind of activity as she entered the main room. Ratchet was yelling orders, Bulkhead was supporting most of Optimus, and Arcee and Bumblebee were helping guide them into the med bay. Arcee was also saying something to Ratchet about acid. Flare was the only one not involved. She stood back from the rest, as if afraid to touch anything. As soon as Optimus had been moved Ratchet chased all the Bots out of the med-bay and sealed the door. The sudden lack of action that followed was almost disturbing.

The Bots stood outside the door, waiting anxiously. The other kids each approached their respective guardians and started talking in low voices. Rhea's own guardian still held back, but the blonde girl hesitated to go to her. She had not spoken to her guardian since their little fight, except for the note.

She had tried to avoid Flare especially after their rescue from MECH. She didn't do it out of fear or nervousness, but out of anger and frustration. When she saw Flare her mind would flashback to when the femme suddenly appeared in the caves, and she would see her father lying motionless against the wall. What had Flare been thinking? Hitting the wall like that could have killed him! No matter what Silas had done to her she could not wish him dead. She only became more frustrated when she realized that even when absent her father had the power to mess with her life. Yet she couldn't help feeling that way, so to avoid those feelings she avoided Flare. Besides, she still cared for her guardian. She didn't want to fight with her.

But looking at Flare now, she didn't see her hurting Silas. She only saw that her guardian was upset, in pain, and no one else was helping her.

"Flare? What's going on? What's wrong?" Rhea asked when she reached her guardian's pedes. Flare looked down at her charge, confusion momentarily replacing the worry and hurt in her eyes. She didn't question Rhea's actions though. Instead she took a deep vent and answered the questions.

LTHB

_Earlier that same day._

It was a routine energon scouting mission. Ratchet had detected evidence of energon that could be mined, and because it was a large deposit all the bots, except Arcee, were going. Ratchet needed to be there to analyze and gather data, so someone needed to stay behind to perform his normal monitoring tasks. They were only going to study the integrity of the area to ensure mining would not be hazardous, and make sure there weren't any other dangers. That's all it was supposed to be, and for a while that's all it was.

Flare was up high, a position she was used to as a sniper. It was partially so she could be a lookout, and partially to scan some energon signatures coming from the lofty ledge. Scanning from the ground would have been safer, but once they arrived Ratchet discovered there was something about the composition of the cave walls that made long range scans difficult. If she wanted to get precise details she had to be as close as she could. She was crouching next to the wall when all Pit broke loose.

The sounds of battle erupted below her. Flare turned from the wall to see Decepticons flooding in from the depths of the cave, and attacking the Autobots. It was an ambush! Flare wasted no time, she dropped her scanner and onlined her blasters and targeting system. As she did so, more Cons came rushing in from the entrance. She started picking of the troopers closest to her comrades.

*_Optimus, I have attempted to contact Arcee for a ground bridge* _Ratchet's voice came over the group comm link. *_but she can't establish one. This cave must be interfering with it. It will take time for her to make the necessary adjustments.*_

*_Understood._* Optimus replied between blasts.

Flare grimaced at the information. She could only imagine the kind of state Arcee must have been in, being forced to mess with a computer rather than help in the battle. She couldn't dwell on it though. The bots were moving to a higher more defensible position, and she covered them as the moved.

Most of the Cons she shot at were basic troopers. But as she scanned the battlefield she noticed two mechs that stood out from the sea of black and violet. One was a large bulky mech, mostly blue in color, and seemed to be missing one optic. He was engaging Bulkhead; the two were very evenly matched. The other was a bit smaller, but a very noticeable red. He was engaging Bumblebee.

It was harder to tell how matched the two of them were, since their fighting styles were different. They were too close to effectively use guns, so Bee was trying to move in with his fists. The red mech kept dancing out of his reach, using a battle energon prod to jab at Bee when he got too close.

_"Maybe I can even things out a little bit."_ Flare switched from targeting troopers and brought the red mech into her sights. She watched the two mechs intently, waiting for the right moment. There! She fired a carefully aimed blast. The shot sailed down and connected with the red mech's servo. The Con yanked his limb back in pain, and the prod was sent spinning across the battlefield. The red mech looked around angrily for the source of the shot, and his optics finally landed on Flare. He was forced to look away when Bee's servo slammed into his shoulder. Flare turned her attention elsewhere. She shot at a Vehicon that had been sneaking up on Ratchet. It hit the con right below the neck.

She felt a ping in her processor. Bee had activated his comm link to address the group, but before he could get a buzz out another voice spoke up. It was the red mech, his smooth voice carrying over the open link.

*_We're supposed to take you all offline you know, but perhaps I could argue for one or two to be spared. That bright femme up there would certainly make a nice addition to the ship, maybe I could-_* The voice suddenly vanished as Bee shut his comm off in favor of attacking again. Flare didn't here the rest of what he said, but shortly after he stopped speaking she noticed a change in the battle dynamic. A mass of green suddenly slammed into the red mech. Bulkhead sent the smaller mech crashing to the ground, and in that moment Flare could have sworn she heard a high pitched scream of 'My finish!'. The large blue mech, who Bulkhead had been fighting just moments before, stared at the scene. He seemed confused, and even a little put out. The blue mech caught Bumblebee's optic. The yellow mech just shrugged and they both rushed to join the smack down Bulk had started. There was not way she'd get a clean shot into that brawl.

Flare turned her attention to other parts of the battle, when she caught a scuttling movement out of the corner of her optic. It was up high, more on her level. She looked up to investigate, but a force slammed into her back. She teetered dangerously toward the edge, but managed to regain her balance just in time. She spun around to find her position being invaded. She'd been so focused on her comrades that she hadn't noticed several Vehicons making their way up to her ledge.

The group rushed at her. She pulled back, trying to keep her distance. She fired a volley at them. It took down most of the group, but three still remained. They hurdled over the frames of their fallen comrades, and were right on top of her.

Flare was very grateful that Bulkhead and Arcee had insisted on spending so much time improving her hand to hand combat. She dodged the first swings, switching to her blades as quickly as she could. She was about to strike back when that scuttling motion caught her optics again. In the moment of distraction the troopers landed several hits. She flailed, coming close to the edge again.

She focused exclusively on the troopers, using her fists to fight back as well as she could. While the increased training with Bulkhead had improved her skills she had yet to reach her comrade's level. Still, she was able to prevail. She knocked two of the drones out, and then there was one. With him she was finally able to use the altitude to her advantage. She kept herself between the trooper and the wall, landing blow after blow. Finally he teetered back, slipped, and managed to grab the edge by one servo. He dangled there, helplessly.

"Please!" the trooper suddenly spoke up. "Help me! You can knock me out but don't let me fall!"

The fall would surely kill him. Flare knew that. She started at him for a moment, caught between sympathy for the frightful desperation in his voice, and the knowledge that things would be easier if she stomped on his digits.

"Optimus!" Ratchet's voice rose above the din of battle. Flare looked up, and her optics widened in horror. Optimus Prime was doubled over in pain, with Airachnid standing triumphantly before him. Something green was spreading across the Prime's chest armor, making it smoke. The spider femme reared back to strike, but never completed the move. Ratchet came at her with his blades, making Airachnid dodge out of the way. Flare fired, taking the spider bots pedes out from under her. Scowling, Airachnid looked around. The majority of the troopers were down, and now the other Autobots were running to join their medic in the battle. Before Bee and Bulk could make it to her she got up and scurried away at high speed. A ground bridge opened up and she rushed in, leaving the remaining Cons to follow.

Bulkhead growled, looking like he would smash a few more before they left. But a swift order from Ratchet kept him in place. The mechs lifted Optimus up as Flare climbed down from her ledge. She hardly took notice of the fact that the trooper who'd spoken to her had fallen anyway. Thankfully, Arcee had just gotten done making the adjustment needed to open a ground bridge inside the cavern. It was a whirlwind of activity as they rushed Optimus back to base.

LTHB

_Present_

A ball of worry and dread had settled in Rhea's stomach by the end of the story. Optimus couldn't die. She hadn't been with the bots long, but she was fairly certain that the Prime's death would destroy them. She looked up into Flare's distant face. Though the expression was metal it was familiar, guilt mixed with sadness. She'd seen it on several soldiers after their mission had gone horribly awry. Did Flare feel guilty for letting Airachnid get that close to Optimus?

Not knowing what to say, Rhea leaned into Flare's leg and stroked her armor. It was the closest she could get to hug, and she hoped Flare found it as comforting as she did.

She noticed similar behavior happening all over the room. Bulkhead held Miko close his chest, Raf rested on Bee's shoulder, and Jack stood close to Arcee. She remembered when she'd first come here, she'd wondered why the Bots got along so well with their 'assignments'. It turns out she _had_ been missing something, and it shined brightest during moments like this. She'd been missing Jack's support and leadership, Raf's tech skills and innocence, Miko's lightheartedness, and how each one helped the Bots get through another day in their own unique way.

The Med bay door swished open. Everyone reacted instantaneously, demanding to know what happened and what state their leader was in. Ratchet managed to silence them all.

"Optimus will be fine. I managed to prevent the venom from permanently damaging is spark chamber, but he will require some time to recover." The tension everyone had been holding in released from the group like a collective sigh.

"So can we go see him?" Jack asked. Ratchet shook his head.

"Not yet, he needs some time to recharge." the medic sent a pointed look toward Bulkhead. "I mean it Miko."

"I didn't say anything!" the girl protested.

A couple days passed and Optimus was well on the road to recovery. All the Bots had rushed in to see him as soon as the medic had allowed it. The Prime seemed to take just as much reassurance from seeing them as they did from seeing him.

LTHB

"You're going on another mission? Already?" Rhea asked her guardian in a slightly stunned voice. It had been a couple days since Optimus had been allowed visitors. Flare had seen him several times, but Rhea had only one quick visit alongside the other kids. She would have gone with Flare on her visits, but there was still some unspoken tension between them. Rhea no longer avoided Flare, and they were back on speaking terms, yet neither of them sought the other out. They'd only met in the hallway through coincidence.

"Yep, we didn't get any energon last time, so we need to keep scouting. If we're lucky we'll find a deposit that Megatron hasn't managed to snatch up yet. Don't worry about it though. We won't be in a cave this time, it's a lot harder to pull off an ambush in the open." She felt a ping in her comm.

*Yes Ratchet, I'm almost there.*

"I'll see you soon." With that Flare rushed to the main room. Rhea remained where she was standing in the hallway. Flare had read her emotions half right, she was worried, but also impressed. After seeing the look of guilt on Flare's face after her last mission Rhea had assumed it would take longer for her to recover. She wasn't sure why, she'd certainly never considered her guardian to be a quitter, or seen any evidence for it. Still the resilience impressed her. Suddenly her days of hiding from everyone seemed a little silly. If Flare could keep going after such a near catastrophe, then why couldn't she do the same? Why couldn't she help her friends against her father's plans?

A small wave of dread went through her at the thought of betraying Silas further than she already had, but she angrily forced it down. Why should she keep giving into him? He betrayed her trust again and again, what did he deserve from her?

She'd made promises to him, said she would keep MECH's secrets. But Silas had made promises to her as well, and they'd been broken. If that's what a promise meant to him then that's what he should get in return.

She thought about Flare, how much she and the rest of the Bots were like a real family. How readily they would come to each others aid. How they would do their best to press on even when they were injured or feeling doubtful of themselves, because they knew the others were depending on them.

She wanted that.

New resolve forming in her mind, Rhea pondered the next issue. She _would_ do her best to help her new friends, but how could she do that?

Despite all he'd put her through, and her still developing new goals, she still didn't want Silas hurt. She would see MECH gone and forever destroyed if she had her way, but not the people, not her father. A part of her felt more than a little annoyed at her sentimental side.

Maybe a visit would help settle her mind.

LTHB

After the unsuccessful mission to find more energon, Flare had trouble recharging that night. The threat of depleting reserves, along with everything else that had happened recently, left a lot on one's processor. Sighing in defeat, Flare decided that a quick walk around base might help.

As she meandered through the base, she heard noises coming from the med-bay. Did Ratchet ever recharge? She walked in, completely intent on convincing the medic to rest for once. However, she didn't find Ratchet.

"Bee? What are you doing up?"

Bumblebee turned away from the computer and beeped a few times.

"Ratchet went to recharge on his own? _And_ left you do some of the chores? Caring for Optimus must tired him out more than I thought."

Bee warbled in understanding at her slightly amused tone.

The conversation was interrupted by small beep from the computer. Bumblebee turned around to look at the notice that had come up. Flare saw him stiffen, and he whirred in confusion and concern.

"What is it?" She asked. So much for making her mind calm down.

Bee read the notice aloud.

"One of the human entrances was used at this hour? Did Miko decide to have another impromptu sleep over?"

Bee shook his helm, and mentioned that sensors indicated that it was the main room's entrance that had been used.

"Well, let's go check it out."

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><p><strong>Author's note<strong>

Some of the transitions didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped in this one. I hope it wasn't too distracting.

Also, I forgot how busy college makes you. So I apologize in advance in the event that times between updates become even longer.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and please feel free to leave a comment. Constructive criticism is always welcome, and any review helps motivate me to get the next chapter done.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p>"<em>Indentures can be broken at any point during an apprenticeship, Erik, however dark the profession. Even the harshest master cannot hold you to a craft against your choosing. And remember, however long and faithfully you may have served as a bondsman, once those indentures are broken you will never have the right to call yourself a master of that trade."<em> ~Giovanni. Phantom by Susan Kay.

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><p>It was the main room's human entrance that had been used, the one that Fowler used when he landed his helicopter. The pair searched and checked computer records, and discovered that no one had entered the base. Actually, someone had left.<p>

As Stellar Flare and Bumblebee made their way outside to see if they could find anything, Flare decided she didn't like where this was going. Without any of the other kids visiting there was only one person on base who would use a human sized entrance. Flare and Bee made their way to the roof of the base, and climbed up just enough so they could poke their helms up and get a look at the stone and metal roof. It didn't take them long to spot a lone figure standing near the pile of stones dedicated to Cliffjumper.

Flare stiffened when she recognized the figure. She'd hoped it hadn't been Rhea sneaking out, and that maybe the notice was another one of the computer glitches Ratchet always complained about. Flare's charge was dressed in loose fitting clothing and a jacket. For once her hair was out of it's braid, and fell freely around her shoulders. Flare looked to Bee, and used the comm to ask him for suggestions on what to do. True to his scout nature Bee opted for staying put and observing, at least for now.

The young woman was turned slightly away from them. That's why it took the bots a minute to realize that her mouth was moving. She also held her hands in front of her, like she was holding something they couldn't see. Flare's internal circuitry went cold as Miko's skeptical voice ran through her processor.

_"So, what? She's gonna try to sneak out in the middle of the night, call up Silas, and tell him where the base is?"_

No. Her charge wouldn't do that, not after everything that had happened, would she?

They continued to observe, though Rhea didn't do anything different for several minutes. Bumblebee turned up his audio scanners, trying to catch whatever the girl was saying. She must have been speaking very softly though, because even at his best Bee only picked up a few words. But he could tell that there were no signals going out from this spot, none that he could detect anyway.

Several times she looked up at the stars and paused like she was waiting for something. They never saw anything happen, but each time she did this her movements became a little more animated.

Finally she stopped talking and turned. Flare and Bee ducked down a little, worried she might see them. She didn't make a move toward them, instead she examined Cliffjumper's memorial. Suddenly she ran to the other side of it, and the memorial blocked their view of her. Before long they heard the sounds of something sliding and scraping. Flare, now thoroughly worried and confused, was about to move so she could see her charge again. Before she could do so Rhea came running back around, and the two ducked down again. Rhea didn't seem to notice them as she scampered onto the metal part of the roof and called the elevator up to her. A moment later it arrived and she slipped back inside the base. The two bots stayed put for a moment, just in case she came running back out, but that didn't happen.

Bee clicked a few times.

"Yeah, odd is one way to put it." Flare responded slowly. She pulled herself up onto the rocky roof and Bee followed after her.

It was dark, but that didn't interfere with their scanners. The two bots investigated the area Rhea had been standing in. It didn't take long before Bee called his teammate over with a low trill. Flare found him kneeling on the ground, closely studying a sheltered nook in the rock.

"What'd you find Bee?" the femme asked. Bee got up and let her see for herself.

There was a pile of stones sitting on the ground, very similar to Cliffjuper's behind them except this one was smaller. Another major difference was that something was sticking out of the center of it. The small stones were piled around what appeared to be folded colored paper. The top was orange, wide, and had a few black dots on it, while the bottom was green and stick like.

Bee whirred and whistled, saying the paper shape looked like a flower Raf had called a 'lily'.

Flare looked between the two piles of stones, and it dawned on her. Rhea had been trying to communicate with a parent, just not the one Flare had originally thought. She took a closer look at the paper flower; on the green stem were the neatly printed words "For my mother".

The femme quickly explained her theory to Bumblebee and, given the purpose of it they, shouldn't berate Rhea for this little outing. The mech looked between the two memorials in sudden understanding and whistled in agreement. She smiled at him, happy he accepted it so easily.

Explaining it to her femme friend was another matter.

"The system clearly says that one of the human entrances was used." Arcee said. She looked at Bee, demanding an explanation. Arcee had been the first to discover the notice on the computer. Normally it would have been Ratchet, but he was busy working with the synthetic energon equation in the med-bay.

"I know that Arcee, but Bee and I checked it out the moment Bee saw it. It's nothing dangerous."

"Then you won't mind telling me about it." Arcee prodded. She didn't like being left out of the loop.

"It was Rhea sneaking out." Flare admitted

*But we agreed she had a good reason for not asking or telling us about it, and decided not to bother her about it.* Bee hurriedly added. Arcee's optics narrowed.

"She deliberately disobeyed and order from Optimus, what excuse could she have for that?"

"She's not an Autobot 'Cee. She isn't bound to Optimus the same way we are, and given what she was doing I think you of all bots would understand this particular rule breaking."

Arcee gave her friend a confused look. Flare decided futher explanation would be needed to convince Arcee not to tell every other person on base. Flare opened her palm and projected a hologram of the memorial Rhea had made. Arcee looked at it curiously, and her expression softened when she realized what it was.

"Rhea's mother never liked what MECH turned into, but Silas manipulated her into working for them. When she died it left Rhea all alone at MECH." Flare explained. She didn't like revealing this to Arcee without her charge's knowlegde, but Flare figured that if Arcee knew she might help them in keeping this quiet.

Arcee gazed at the hologram for another minute. She never advertised it when she paid Cliffjumper a visit, and still hadn't told anyone that she talked to him when she was feeling troubled. She looked up at her teammates.

"So whose going to help me wipe the notice from the computer memory?"

* * *

><p>Rhea cradled the sketch pad she'd spent the last few days hunched over. She'd started working on it right after talking with her Mom had given her the idea for it; a way to help the bots without hurting Father. Thankfully no one had noticed her trek outside the base.<p>

She walked into the med-bay, wondering where she might be able to put the pad so that Ratchet would find it, and halted when she saw Ratchet was already there.

She hadn't expected to see him here, since he was still recovering from the ordeal Raf had told her and the other kids about. She hadn't witnessed any of it, but apparently the day she stated working on her sketches Ratchet had a bit of an incident with his Synth-En formula. He tried it on himself, and even though it seemed to work it also caused him to go a little crazy. He'd rushed off into a battle, alone, and almost gotten killed by the Decepticons. Last she knew he was still bedridden.

"Excuse me, Ratchet?" The medical bot turned toward her, wincing slightly at the movement.

"You'd better be here for something other than my recovery. I swear if one more person tells me I need to go back to my quarters and rest-"

"No, no, it's not about that." she quickly assured him. "I just wanted to show you this." She ran up the stairs onto the catwalk and handed the sketch pad to him. Curious, Ratchet examined the pad held between two of his large digits. His optics widened when he realized what it was, information on the gun MECH used to incapacitate Cybertronians.

"It's not a full schematic, obviously. I didn't help build the thing so I don't know everything about it. The basics were covered in my tech training though, and I put down as much as I could remember. I figured you might find it useful."

Ratchet flipped through the pages. It was an incomplete diagram, but it was more than he knew before. Perhaps it could help him develop some sort of defense against the MECH weapon.

"It will be a good start. Thank you." Rhea smiled at how pleased the doctor sounded. Ratchet started scanning the pages into his permanent memory. Once he was finished he handed the pad back to the girl, but she hesitated to leave.

"Was there something else you wished to discuss?"

"Well, I have to ask Optimus for permission first. But if he says yes, and if your feeling up to it, would you like to help me build something?" she looked up at him hopefully, and Ratchet's optics visibly brightened.

* * *

><p>As it turns out Optimus did say yes. So several days later Rhea sat on the floor of the main room, giving the metal sphere one more look before Fowler arrived. She had asked for Ratchet's help to build another of MECH's inventions. It was the one piece of tech she knew enough about to make a full diagram, but she had needed Ratchet's engineering skills to complete it. Once it was finished they'd called Fowler over to give a demonstration of it.<p>

Flare sat on the floor also, watching her young charge. She was proud to see the girl finally displaying some of her talents for a good purpose. The two were slowly becoming comfortable around each other once again, and Flare had even been present during part of the building process.

While Rhea checked the device one last time Flare noticed she kept glancing over at Ratchet, who was going over the scans he'd just taken of the device. Bulkhead and Bee were lounging by a wall not too far away from him.

"If you need to ask him something you can just go over and do it." Flare stated.

"Huh? Oh, I don't have any questions. Everything seems fine. I was just thinking about how...excited Ratchet was about parts of this project." Rhea quickly covered. Flare hadn't been there when Rhea had first come up with the plans and she and Ratchet had started building. Correction, Ratchet had started building. She had tried to help but she didn't realize how possesive the mech could get. That mad scientist glint in his optics...Rhea wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to look at the medic the same way again.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the proximity alert going off. The green light signaling that Agent Fowler had arrived. A minute later he strolled in carrying a briefcase. Rhea gathered some notes she had written and went up to meet him.

"I have to admit, I was pretty surprised that you suddenly wanted to demonstrate some MECH tech. Quite the change of attitude since we last met."

"Yeah, I guess so." Rhea attempted to barrel through having to explain the reasons for her change of heart. "Anyway I still need to tell you what this is." Fowler held up a hand and she paused.

"Before we get into whatever demo you have planned there's something I want to give you." Fowler sat down on the green couch and flipped open the brief case. He pulled out a manilla envelope and handed it to her. She opened it and pulled out the contents, which happened to be a series of mug shots. She looked up to him for an explanation.

"Those are ID pictures of everyone back at headquarters. I figured if you were now open to sharing tech secrets you might willing to play a little 'guess who' with us. We figure someone at base must be associated with MECH if they knew my chopper's flight pattern, and you'd be the most likely to recognize their actual face. Think you could page through those and give us a head's up if you recognize anyone?"

Rhea frowned, looking back down at the pictures. This kind of thing she wasn't so sure about, but maybe it would be okay. It's not like they would kill the double agent if they did find him, and Fowler had made it pretty clear that they didn't torture for information. So maybe it would be okay to tell them if she found someone she knew. She looked at each picture in turn.

"I'll take a look at them. I'm not sure if it'll be anyone I know, but I'll-" Rhea cut off when she turned over the next page, blinking in surprise. She was looking at a picture of a man in his early 30's with light brown hair, hazel eyes, and very average facial features. He wouldn't have stood out in a crowd.

"Hadely?" Rhea said in disbelief.

"You know him?" Fowler was instantly attentive.

"Yeah, he was at MECH. He went on a lot of stealth missions."

Fowler looked at the number on the photo and quickly looked up the man's information.

"Doesn't have 'Hadely' as his name in his profile. Of course we have reason to suspect that 'Silas' isn't your father's real name either." He looked over at Rhea, and saw the nervousness in her eyes.

"Hey, you did good kid. You'll look through the rest of them just in case?"

"Sure." Rhea responded slowly, still looking at the picture.

"So is this something we can touch?" Miko's voice floated up to the catwalk. Rhea jumped up and turned to see Miko fiddling with the device she and Ratchet had worked on. Raf was standing nervously next to her.

"Miko I really don't think you're supposed to do that." The young boy pulled on her arm a little, trying to get her to put it down.

"If it's important that why was it on the floor?" the Asian girl countered.

"Miko! Put that down!" Ratchet growled at her.

"Miko, don't-" Rhea started to warn her. Before she could finish the sentence three panels opened up on the top of the ball. Knowing what was coming next Rhea quickly closed her eyes and covered her ears. The world flashed red through Rhea's closed lids and a long high pitched note could be heard through the hands that covered her ears. When she dared to open her eyes and uncover he ears she looked around. Fowler had followed her lead in the knick of time, but Raf and Miko lay unconscious on the ground.

"What the heck was that?" Bulkhead wondered aloud. His optics and audio recievers adjusted to the sudden change in light and sound. Then he saw his charge on the ground. "Miko!"

"Oops." Rhea said as she looked at them. Bulkhead lunged toward the catwalk.

"**What happened to Miko!**" He thundered. Rhea automatically stepped back at his anger, which caused her to hit the table and fall backwards with an undignified squawk. Normally Bulkhead would have appreciated the humor in that, but not when Miko was possibly injured. Bee was leaning over Raf and clicking worriedly. Flare stepped forward and put herself between him and the catwalk, and Ratchet chose to intervene.

"Calm down Bulkhead, this is not a lethal weapon. I wouldn't have helped her put it together if it was."

"He's right, it's just a fancy stun grenade." Rhea explained, scrambling to her feet. "It's the same kind that was used on Fowler and I when we were captured. A variation was used to knock out all the soldiers on the train that had the DNGS."

"We already had some idea of how the ones on the train worked, so we decided to start with this one for the demonstration. As near as I can tell it uses the light and sound to create a sensory overload that forces the human mind into unconsciousness." Ratchet explained. Then Rhea jumped in.

"But it's temporary. When Miko and Raf wake up they'll be completely fine. Well, most likely."

"'most likely'?!" Bulkhead questioned.

"I just meant that it causes a few side affects in some people. They can have trouble seeing, hearing, or concentrating for a little while after they wake up. But that lasts an hour at most, usually less." Bulkhead was still giving her a look.

"And, just so you know, I was the one who was supposed to get knocked out by it. And since this one is just a demo they should only be out for a few minutes."

Seemingly mollified, Bulkhead went over to check on Miko, and Rhea breathed a sigh of relief. Ratchet did scans of them to ensure the yellow and the green mech that the humans were fine. Flare looked at Rhea curiously.

"Just a few minutes? Doesn't seem like much." The guardian noted, her charge shrugged.

"Like I said this one was just a demonstration. Plus we only had spare parts to work with, so doing one that was only a few minutes was easier. If you take more time and use the best materials one of those things can have an entire roomful of people conked out for more than an hour." At this point Miko was starting to get up, and Raf was just starting to stir.

"Maybe we'll have to make sunglasses a part of the military uniforms." Fowler mused. Apparently there was nothing wrong with Miko's hearing, because she shouted

"Military uniforms will be 20% cooler!" she wobbled slightly and Bulkhead caught her. "My skin feels so tingly!" she said happily.

"Yeah, mine too." Raf groaned.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that one." Rhea muttered.

Raf asked for his glasses, only to be told by Bumblebee that he was still wearing them. But the tingling and blurred vision seemed to be the only side affects and they were fading quickly. As they recovered Rhea retrieved the MECH stun grenade and gave it to Fowler, along with the notes she had gathered earlier. Ratchet had already scanned all the information he wanted into the base computer.

"Well, the demo didn't go exactly as planned, but this should still be enough to work with." Fowler gave a friendly pat on the back. "Thanks kid, this will do some real good outside the base. Oh, and here." Fowler fished into his pocket, took out a card and gave it to her. "If the bots are away or busy and something comes up you can call me with that number. I gave one to the other kids too." Rhea gratefully accepted it.

Flare smiled at her charge as she and Fowler said goodbye. She was still a little surprised about how confident she'd been with everything. Besides falling she'd hardly panicked at all when Bulkhead had gotten angry. Hopefully it would last.

Outside the base...maybe she should bring that up with Optimus.

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><p><strong>A.N.<strong>

Well, there's the long awaited next chapter. Sorry about the long pause, like I said, college keeps you busy.

Autobot-Blurr 221- It's not all that surprising that you can see them all fighting in your head, the show does a great job at giving us good action visuals! I'm glad that you liked the scene. :) As for Prime, he was well enough to participate in the events of Stronger Faster, but I'm going to explain his overall absense in this chapter by saying that he still needs plenty of rest due to his recent injury.

Porter-Fuzz1218- I'm sorry if the suspense caused you any damage! Hopefully the real thing wasn't too much of a let down. Does this mean you owe me a sandwich?


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Transformers Franchise. The only thing I own are my OCs.

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><p>"<em>Never goes smooth. How come it never goes smooth?"<em>- Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly

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><p>The flame colored motorcycle that drove into the small town of Jasper didn't get many strange looks. Well it got a few, but not as much as such a vehicle might have garnered in another small town. It seemed the people of Jasper were relatively used to seeing strange vehicles on their streets, as well as drivers with dark helmets.<p>

The bike and rider avoided the only two traffic lights in town and were soon parked outside the local school. Jasper was a small enough area that they managed to fit the elementary and high school into the same building. When the engine cut out the bike started to tip before the rider moved, and the kickstand came down automatically. The bike sagged.

"Rhea, we practiced that." a robotic voice sounded inside the rider's helmet.

"Sorry, I got distracted." Rhea's quickly apologized, talking so quietly that only murmur escaped the helmet. Flare sighed internally. At least her charge had been able to keep her eyes on the road while they were driving.

"Is it okay to take the helmet off now?" Rhea asked.

"Should be. Raf said all the school's cameras point at the entrances."

Rhea quickly pulled the tinted helmet off her head, and took a deep breath of fresh air. She still couldn't believe Flare had convinced Optimus Prime to give her some time outside the base. Flare had to act as her chaperone of course, but she didn't mind. She was just happy to see something other than technology and rock. The school grounds were simple, but well kept, and the sun was shinning brightly. She twirled the helmet between her fingers, then paused to look at her hands. Yikes! Rhea hadn't realized how pale she was getting. If she wasn't careful her hands and face would get sun burnt.

Arcee rolled up a few minutes later with her holographic rider. Rhea had to remind herself not to greet the bike. She and Flare had gone over a quite a few things before going on this little trip, including how talking to 'inanimate objects' would draw attention.

It was a school day, but it would be a little while before any of the kids were let out. Arcee had to come a little early, to make sure that no one saw her hologram disappear and to make sure that she could get into the exact place Jack had 'parked her' that morning. Flare and Rhea were there because after school got out they were going for a drive with Jack and Arcee. Arcee had suggested it. The blue femme wasn't about to pass an opportunity to spend some free time with both her charge and her old friend, and though she was less enthusiastic about Rhea she didn't mind the young woman coming along.

Before too long Rhea was startled by the sound a bell ringing, and then again a few minutes later by a swarm of kids pouring out of the building and shouting things like 'TGIF!'. She scanned the crowd, looking for any of her friends. She spotted Raf and Miko in the crowd just in time for their respective guardians to pull up to the school. She grinned at the cars and then at the kids, standing on her tip toes and waving to them energetically. She'd been nervous when she saw so many people coming out of the building at once, but it was hard not to get caught up in their obvious excitement.

"Hey, you're finally free!" Miko called as the ran over to them. "So did you do anything in town yet? Jasper has pretty much nothing, but the ice cream at the KO burger isn't half bad and that little shop on..." Miko started to ramble off all the little places in Jasper that had any sort of time wasting value. Raf and Rhea looked at each other for a second, he shrugged and they both smiled.

"Sounds great Miko, I'll have to ask Jack about those. But I think your ride is getting impatient." Rhea glanced at the green SUV when it roared its engine.

"Oh yeah, I promised to bring him the newest Slash Monkey album!" Miko whipped a CD out from her bag and ran to her guardian.

Rhea smiled as the girl ran off, but then frowned as she looked around.

"Where's Jack?" she asked Raf.

"I don't know, he was right behind us. He must have forgot something." the small boy said with a shrug. The yellow Camaro suddenly started honking incessantly, Raf laughed.

"Alright Bee, I'm coming." he turned back to Rhea and 'her bike', "I gotta go, I'm teaching Bee all about soccer." Rhea frowned at him in confusion, but he ran off before she could ask what had made them schedule such an activity.

There was still no sign of Jack, and as the number of kids still there dwindled she started to worry. It wasn't too long before he walked out though, and the reason for the delay was explained. A pretty red haired girl walked out beside him. Both were smiling, but Jack kept fumbling and rubbing the back of his head. Rhea smiled, suddenly remembering some stories that Miko had told about Jack having a crush at school. The Asian girl was right, Jack's awkwardness around her was pretty adorable. The pair finally said their good-byes, and Jack wandered over, still smiling broadly.

"About time." Arcee said as he put his helmet on, amusement clear in her voice. "You didn't promise her another ride did you?"

"What? No, I didn't. She liked the last one though, so if you're offering..."

"I already told you Jack, just that one time."

"Oh come on Cee, have a spark, they are too cute together!" Flare cooed.

"I agree." Rhea said with a smile. Jack's face started to redden.

"Guys, st-, uh oh, time to go." Jack quickly swung himself onto Arcee's seat.

"Wait, what's wrong?" Rhea asked looking around. She spotted a boy about Jack's age, also with red hair, walking down the steps toward them.

"He's what's wrong. Come on."

Rhea did as she was told, quickly shoving her helmet on. She jumped into the seat and they tore out of the parking lot before he could reach them. They only stopped when they came to a stop sign.

"That was close."

"Hey! Darby!"

"Scrap." Jack muttered as the sound of a powerful engine came up behind them. Aloud he called out "What do you want Vince?"

The red haired boy pulled his car close, looking all of them over and smirking as his eyes swept over Rhea and 'her bike'.

"Just wanted to congratulate you on waking up. About time you saw sense and stopped chasing Sierra, it shouldn't have taken you this long to figure out she was out of your league. Where'd you pick this one up?" He gestured to Rhea.

"I did not 'pick her up' and even if I had it wouldn't be any of your business." Jack said in a tight voice.

"So that means she's free?" Vince asked with mock curiosity, turning to Rhea. "At least you have decent taste in color, flames are the best. Maybe you'd let me take the bike for a spin?"

"No way, it's not even mine!" she blurted out, immediately regretting it. She shouldn't have said anything at all. The way Jack was looking at her he was probably thinking something similar.

"Then whose bike is it?" Vince asked, curiosity sounding a little more genuine this time.

"It belongs to...my sister. Stella." the girl supplied. Arcee's engine revved.

"Come on, we're holding up traffic." Jack said, and they zoomed away from Vince. He tried to follow after them, but the cycle-bots took a few alleys and were able to lose him easily.

Before long they were outside of town and on the open desert road.

"Well, that could have gone better." Jack said.

"Yeah...I'm sorry. I could have handled that better." Rhea admitted. Jack shrugged.

"True, but it's not your fault Vince is a jerk. He even managed to get to Arcee once."

"Really?" Flare piped up over the comm. There wasn't a lot that could do that to her old friend.

And so began the story of the only race Arcee ever agreed to, and how things eventually escalated into an illegal race with Bumblebee and the kidnapping of Vince. Rhea felt a pang of sympathy by the end of the story. They didn't mention that Optimus officially reprimanded them for everything that happened, but it was easily implied. Rhea hated to be chewed out by anyone, she wasn't sure she could handle one from the Autobot leader.

"So you're sure you never want to race again?" Flare asked playfully.

"Is that a challenge?" the blue bike demanded, excitement in her voice.

"And what if it is?" Flare asked with a laugh, then addressed the humans "What do you think? You two up for a race?"

"You really have to ask?" Jack was grinning underneath his helmet.

A short drive later the motorcycles and riders were positioned at the start of the lightly forested road that had hosted that illegal race months ago. It seemed fitting given the story they'd been telling, plus it was a road that very few people still used. Less chance of running into anyone out here.

"What happened to not abusing power for personal gain?" Rhea asked as the two teams readied themselves.

"Different when it's Cybertronian against Cybertronian. No abuse of my power here." Arcee reasoned.

"Who said she was talking about _your_ power?" Flare taunted.

"Funny thing about flares, they burst out so bright and strong but by the end they just fizzle out." When it came to taunts Arcee always gave as good as she got. Flare was about to replay again, but Rhea interrupted them by asking who would signal the start of the race. Even if it was friendly Rhea still wasn't entirely comfortable with this kind of conflict. Jack volunteered to do the countdown.

"On your mark, get set, GO!" Jack shouted the last word and the world lurched forward. The landscapes blurred around them as the two bikes and riders sped down the road, Arcee initially gaining the lead.

Rhea watched the pair ahead of them, noticing how Jack positioned himself lowly over Arcee to avoid causing drag. Rhea shifted herself lower as well, trying to give her own partner every advantage. She saw how Jack leaned into every curve Arcee made, and mimicked the action. Her heartbeat jumped up as the lean brought her close to the pavement, but she held it, trusting Flare would not let her fall. Before long the two bots were neck and neck. Jack and Rhea looked at each other, and both laughed in joyful excitement.

And then Jack and Arcee suddenly disappeared.

Startled, Rhea looked back. Arcee had come to a screeching halt in the road. Flare noticed the sudden drop and slowed down as well, only much more gradually. The red-orange femme spun herself around and approached her fellow two wheeler.

"Cee? What happened?" Flare asked, worry clear in her voice. Arcee didn't answer right away. She wiggled a little bit, and Jack took the hint to get off. She transformed to her bipedal form as soon as he did, and started scanning the horizon. Rhea and Flare followed their example

"I thought I...sensed something." the moment Arcee finished the sentence two balls of white shot out of the trees at them. Arcee managed to dodge the one intended for her, but Flare wasn't fast enough. She was thrown across the road onto a grassy slope. A white sticky substance pinned her to the earth. Rhea cried out in dismay and ran to her guardian. Jack and Arcee stayed rooted, the latter shifting her servos into blasters.

"You could sense I was here even with that race going on? Oh dear, I must be losing my touch." a silky voice echoed from the trees. Arcee didn't even have to see the multiple spindly legs and golden horned helm emerging from the trees to recognize who it was.

"Airachnid." Arcee spat the name out like a curse word.

"Arcee, it's always such pleasure. And you even thought to bring your pet and new partner for me play with." the spider-femme smiled in mock sweetness.

In an instant Arcee scanned the area. Possible additional Decepticon signals to the north, Jack beside her, Flare just managing to get her arm out and activate her battle blades, Rhea pulling at the webbing still attached.

"Jack, get Rhea out of here. Go south into the trees, contact base if you can." the blue femme ordered in a low voice. Jack hesitated to leave his partner, but knew he couldn't be of any help in this kind of fight. No leaking energon or ship for him to blow up here.

"Be careful." he murmured, before running to do as she'd said. The sound of energy blasts and clashing metal started when he reached Rhea and Flare. The webbing hadn't encased Flare completely, so she was close to cutting herself free. The black haired boy grabbed the girl's shoulder.

"We have to get out of here." the blonde turned her frightened eyes to him and then back to her guardian. The femme nodded, slicing at the last thick piece of web. Rhea followed Jack without question as he toward the trees. The sounds of battle suddenly increased and Rhea turned around to see a squad of Vehicon troopers coming down on Flare. Her view was cut off as Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her forward.

They ran until the sounds of battle began to diminish. Jack spotted a boulder jutting out from the ground and ducked down behind it, pulling Rhea with him. He let go of her hand to pull out his cell phone.

"Do you have a signal?" the girl asked anxiously. Jack flipped the phone open, relief flooding through him when he saw he had two bars. He nodded to Rhea and dialed the number Ratchet had given him for the base. Ratchet picked the line up, sounding irritated. He opened his mouth to tell him about the attack when Rhea suddenly put her hand over his mouth. Jack turned to her angrily, but she placed her finger to her own lips and then touched her ear. She removed her hand, and Jack heard it. A mechanical slithering sound. The pair of humans stilled, trying to make their breathing as quiet as possible. The sound continued for another minute, then stopped. Then two humans looked at each other, right before they lost their connection to the ground.

"Ratchet! HELP!" Jack screamed as he was wrenched into the air, losing his grip on his phone. He lifted his head to scream for help again, and started struggling to get free. But what he saw next ceased his struggles and his voice died in his throat. He was looking into the blank mask of Soundwave.

After his moment of terror Jack struggled even more violently than before. Soundwave had him around the waist with one of his mechanical tentacles. He started to yell for help, but Soundwave tightened his grip. The shout cut off with Jack's air supply.

"Jack?!" came Ratchet's distant voice. Another extension whipped out and crushed Jack's phone.

It was only now that Jack caught sight of Rhea. Soundwave's tentacle had caught her around the ankles, so she was forced to hang upside down. The grip was even tighter on her, threatening snap her bones if she struggled. She screamed, but another extension quickly wrapped itself around her chest, cutting off her air supply.

Jack tried to fight, tried breathe, but he couldn't expand his chest. His vision began to dim. He stayed conscious just long enough to see a swirling green light.

Then there was nothing.


End file.
